jp>^^^Jl~Z^j-^lf!^^i&%£~^-f*^*eS3i^£±c±/^^^.{S:Z* 

nioemto  of  « 
£  (California 


OLur  cr  ^encbria  .   | 


ECONOMIC    CLASSICS 

EDITED  BY  W.  J.  ASHLEY 


RICHARD   JONES 


ECONOMIC  CLASSICS 


Volumes  now  ready  : 

ADAM  SMITH : 

Select  Chapters  and  Passages 

MALTHUS: 

Parallel  Chapters  from  the 
1st  and  2nd  Editions 

RICARDO  : 

First  Six  Chapters 

THOMAS  MUN: 

England's  Treasure  by 
Forraign  Trade 

RICHARD  JONES: 
Peasant  Rents 


Forthcoming  volumes  : 

TURGOT 
ROSCHER 
SCHMOLLER 
&><:.,  &*f.      . 


PEASANT    RENTS 

BEING   THE   FIRST   HALF   OF 

AN  ESSAY  ON  THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  WEALTH 
AND  ON  THE  SOURCES  OF  TAXATION 

BY 

RICHARD    JONES 


1831 


Neto  f  otfc 
THE   MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LTD. 
1914 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1895, 
BY  MACMILLAN   AND  CO. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped  July,  1895.      Reprinted  August, 
1897   ;  January,  1914. 


Nortoooti 

J.  S.  Cushing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith 

Norwood  Mass.  U.S.A. 


RICHARD  JONES,  the  son  of  a  solicitor  at  Tunbridge  Wells, 
was  born  in  1 790.  He  entered  Caius  College,  Cambridge, 
in  1812,  and  after  receiving  his  degree  in  1816  he  took 
Holy  Orders,  and  was  curate  successively  at  various  places 
in  Sussex.  In  1831  he  published  Part  I. — Rent,  of  An 
Essay  on  the  Distribution  of  Wealth  and  on  the  Sources  of 
Taxation.  Shortly  afterwards  he  was  appointed  to  the 
Professorship  of  Political  Economy  at  the  newly  established 
King's  College,  London,  and  took  occasion  in  his  Introduc- 
tory Lecture  (Feb.  27,  1833)  to  explain  his  attitude  towards 
contemporary  economic  speculation.  In  1835  he  suc- 
ceeded Malthus  as  Professor  of  Political  Economy  and 
History  at  the  East  India  College  at  Haileybury.  Mean- 
while he  had  greatly  interested  himself  in  proposals  for  the 
Commutation  of  Tithe,  and  in  1836  he  took  a  large  share 
in  the  preparation  and  defence  of  the  bill  finally  passed  by 
the  government  of  Lord  John  Russell.  Accordingly  he  was 
appointed  in  that  year  one  of  the  three  Commissioners  to 
whom  the  execution  of  the  act  was  intrusted,  an  office 
which  he  retained  until  the  separate  existence  of  the  Tithe 
Commission  came  to  an  end  in  1851.  During  these  years 
his  energies  were  mainly  engaged  in  the  work  of  the  Com- 
mission, involving,  besides  the  routine  of  administration,  the 
decision  of  many  intricate  questions  of  practice  and  law. 
In  1851  he  became  Secretary  to  the  Capitular  Commission, 

364859 


vi 


and  afterwards  one  of  the  Charity  Commissioners.  He 
died  in  the  College  at  Haileybury  in  1855.  His  Text  Book 
of  Lectures  at  Haileybury ',  an  article  on  Primitive  Political 
Economy  in  England  (originally  contributed  to  the  Edin- 
burgh Review  for  April,  1847),  and  some  other  miscellane- 
ous writings,  were  brought  together  in  a  volume  of  Literary 
Remains  by  his  friend  and  admirer  Dr.  Whewell  in  1859, 
with  a  Prefatory  Notice  which  has  been  freely  drawn  upon 
for  the  biographical  facts  stated  above. 

As  Dr.  Ingram  (History  of  Political  Economy,  p.  142) 
has  justly  remarked,  Jones  was  "  the  most  systematic  and 
thorough-going  of  the  earlier  critics  of  the  Ricardian  sys- 
tem," and  "  much  of  what  has  been  preached  by  the  Ger~ 
man  historical  school  is  found  distinctly  indicated  in  his 
writings."  The  present  reprint  limits  itself,  however,  to  his 
account  of  Peasant  Rents.  This  was  described  by  John 
Stuart  Mill  as  "  a  copious  repertory  of  valuable  facts  on  the 
landed  tenures  of  different  countries,"  and  it  was  one  of 
the  main  sources  from  which  he  drew  his  material  for  the 
chapters  on  land  tenure  in  his  Political  Economy. 

Its  republication  seems  peculiarly  appropriate  at  this 
time.  In  recent  years  much  attention  has  been  paid  to 
the  economic  structure  of  mediaeval  England.  Yet  it  has 
not  been  sufficiently  noticed  how  abundant  is  the  light 
cast  upon  it  by  the  history,  even  in  the  present  century,  of 
serfdom  in  Central  and  Eastern  Europe.  When  Jones  was 
gathering  his  material,  serfdom  was  there  still  but  slowly 
passing  away;  and  he  commented  upon  the  facts  before 
him  with  the  insight  of  an  economist  and  the  practical 
knowledge  of  a  sagacious  agriculturist. 


vii 


Of  late,  also,  German  economists  have  thrown  themselves 
with  ardour  and  success  into  the  investigation  of  the  causes, 
progress,  and  consequences  of  the  Liberation  of  the  Peasants 
in  their  own  country.  They  may,  perhaps,  welcome  this 
modest  contribution  to  the  elucidation  of  their  subject  by 
an  almost  forgotten  economic  historian  in  England. 

And  finally,  it  cannot  but  be  interesting  to  those  who 
know  anything  of  the  course  of  discussion  and  legislation 
concerning  Indian  land-tenure  during  the  present  century, 
to  notice  the  attitude  toward  the  subject  of  one  who  for 
twenty  years  had  a  large  share  in  the  training  of  Indian 
officials. 

In  the  present  reprint,  the  original  punctuation  and 
spelling  have  been  followed  (including  the  omission  of  '  u  ' 
from  '  labour '  throughout)  wherever  there  seemed  no  reason 
to  suspect  typographical  error. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  I. 

DIVISION  OF  THE  SUBJECT. 

PAGE 

SECTION  i.  Rents.  Origin  of  Rents  —  Division  into  Primary  or 
Peasant's  Rents,  and  Secondary,  or  Farmer's  Rents  —  Their  com- 
parative extent i 

SECTION  2.  Division  of  Peasant  Rents  into  Labor  —  Metayer  —  Ryot 
—  and  Cottier  Rents 12 

CHAPTER  II. 
LABOR  OR  SERF  RENTS. 

SECTION  i.    Their  Origin  — Prevalence  from  Russia  to  the  Rhine       .    14 

SECTION  2.  Labor  or  Serf  Rents  in  Russia  —  Their  results  —  Bond- 
age of  the  Peasants  —  How  compleated — Crown  Peasants  — 
Causes  of  their  partial  emancipation,  and  change  in  the  form  of 
their  Rents  —  Their  advantages  —  Disadvantages  —  Temper  — 
Prospects 17 

SECTION  3.  Labor  Rents  in  Hungary  —  Former  Condition  of  Peas- 
ants —  Actual  Condition  —  Maria  Theresa  —  Urbarium  —  Good 
effects  —  Imperfections  —  Causes  of  these 23 

SECTION  4.  Labor  Rents  in  Poland  —  Their  State  in  different  divi- 
sions of  Poland—  In  the  kingdom  of  Poland  —  Stanislaus  Augus- 
tus —  Constitution  adopted  under  him  —  Rights  granted  by  it  to 

Peasants  —  Effects  of  these 28 

ix 


X  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

SECTION  5.  Labor  Rents  in  Livonia  and  Esthonia  —  Peculiarity  of 
these  —  Experiment  of  which  they  represent  the  progress  —  Literary 
disquisitions  on  the  best  mode  of  emancipating  the  Peasantry 
encouraged  by  the  Empress  Catharine  —  results  —  Description  of 
the  conditions  granted  to  the  Livonian  Peasantry  .  .  .  .30 

SECTION  6.  Labor  Rents  in  Germany  —  They  are  going  through  a 
process  of  slow  demolition  —  exemplified  by  the  parallel  case  of 
their  gradual  disappearance  from  England  —  Amtmen  —  Bauers  — 
Hanoverian  Leibeigeners  and  Meyers  —  actual  condition  of  the 
Bauers  —  their  general  emancipation  from  personal  bondage .  .  34 

SECTION  7.  On  some  vestiges  of  Labor  or  Serf  Rents  westward  of  the 

Rhine  —  in  the  Scottish  Highlands 38 

SECTION  8.  Summary  of  the  effects  of  Serf  Rents  —  Dependence  of 
Wages  on  Rents —  Insufficiency  of  agricultural  labor  —  Reluctance 
and  want  of  skill  of  Peasants  in  Russia  —  Prussia  —  Austria  — 
Tendency  to  corrupt  habits  of  free  laborers  living  in  the  midst  of 
them  —  anecdote  of  Mecklenburg  leibeigeners  and  Prussian  free 
laborers  —  Effect  of  insufficiency  of  their  labor  on  national  wealth 
and  strength  —  Inefficient  superintendence  of  agricultural  labor 
—  Russian,  Prussian,  Hungarian  and  German  nobles  —  causes  of 
their  deficiencies  as  conductors  of  cultivation  —  Small  numbers  of 
the  independent  classes  —  Authority  of  landlords  over  tenants  — 
judicial  when  not  despotic  —  domainial  tribunals — in  Hungary  — 
in  Germany  —  effects  of  these  —  The  power  and  influence  of  the 
Aristocracy  —  Good  effects  of  these  —  Exceptions  —  Want  of  pop- 
ular influence  in  the  political  constitution  of  such  countries  — 
Circumstances  which  determine  the  amount  of  labor  rents  —  dif- 
ferent modes  of  increasing  those  rents  —  different  effects  of  those 
modes  —  On  the  changes  in  labor  rents  which  are  desirable  —  dif- 
ficulties which  oppose  those  changes  —  Slow  processes  most  sure 
and  safe  —  Prussian  attempts  at  a  rapid  change  —  unsatisfactory 
results  and  prospects .  .  ..  .  .  .  .  .  .40 


CHAPTER  III. 

METAYER  RENTS. 

SECTION  i.    Metayer    Rents  —  description    of  —  where  prevalent  — 

origin 63 

SECTION  2.     Metayers  in  Greece  —  older  class  of  tenantry  —  cultiva- 
tion  by  rural  proprietors  —  Transition  to  Mortitae  or  Metayers       .    65 


CONTENTS.  xi 


SECTION  3.  Metayers  among  the  Romans  —  small  proprietors  — 
progress  of  cultivation  —  causes  of  spread  of  tenantry  —  ultimate 
prevalence  of  coloni  medietarii,  or  Metayers  —  revival  and  spread 
of  Metayer  rents  among  the  barbarian  occupiers  of  the  empire  .  72 

SECTION  4.  Metayer  Rents  in  France  — first  effects  of  the  barbarian 
occupation  of  Gaul  —  introduction  of  Feudal  tenures  and  of  labor 
rents  —  Serfs  or  Mainmortables  under  Lewis  the  XVIth  —  Metayers 

—  causes  of  their  progress  and  final  prevalence  —  Terms  on  which 
they  held  —  causes  of  misery  —  Taille  —  Description  of  their  con- 
dition,  and  comments  by  Turgot  —  Their  actual  numbers  and 
condition  in  France 76 

SECTION  5.  Metayer  Rents  in  Italy  —  size  of  farms  —  condition  of 
tenantry —  similar  rents  prevail  in  the  Valteline  —  Vaudois  —  Spain 

—  Canary  islands  —  and  exist  in  Afghaunisthaun      .        .        .        .85 
SECTION  6.     Summary  of  Metayer  Rents  —  advantages  of  the  Metayer 

—  disadvantages  —  Metayer  rents  may  increase  in  two  modes  — 
effects  of  each  mode  of  increase  —  probable  effects  on  European 
nations  of  the  progress  of  changes  in  the  Metayer  system        .        .    88 


CHAPTER   IV. 

RYOT  RENTS. 

SECTION  i.  Ryot  Rents  —  description  —  origin  —  disastrous  effects  on 

the  political  institutions  of  countries  in  which  they  prevail  .  .  97 

SECTION  2.  Ryot  Rents  in  India  —  uncertainty  of  the  rent  —  tyranni- 
cal collection  —  effects  on  the  cultivation  of  the  country  .  .  .  101 

SECTION  3.  Ryot  Rents  in  Persia  —  Character  of  the  Persian  Govern- 
ment—  peculiarity  of  the  soil  —  necessity  of  irrigation  —  mode  of 
effecting  it  —  consequent  necessity  of  fixed  property  in  improve- 
ments —  State  of  Ryots  —  of  Lords  of  Villages  —  abuses  of  Govern- 
ment  106 

SECTION  4.  Ryot  Rents  in  Turkey — Origin  —  amount — ziamets  — 
timars  —  mortitae  —  advantages  of  the  Turkish  system  —  disad- 
vantages   113 

SECTION  5.  Ryot  Rents  in  China  little  understood  —  Their  progress 
different  there  and  in  the  rest  of  Asia  —  Quiet  and  skilful  govern- 
ment of  China  —  Increase  of  population  —  Revenue  —  Other 
Asiatic  countries  in  which  it  may  be  presumed  ryot  rents  prevail  ..  118 


xii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

SECTION  6.  Mixture  of  other  rents  with  Ryot  —  Labor  rents  — 

Metayer  rents  —  in  Persia,  India,  Turkey 121 

SECTION  7.  Summary  of  Ryot  Rents,  their  direct  effects  not  necessa- 
rily bad  —  their  indirect  and  political  effects  disastrous  —  Connec- 
tion of  ryot  rents  with  wages  —  Modes  of  increase  —  different 
results  of  each 123 

CHAPTER  V. 

COTTIER   RENTS. 

Cottier  Rents  —  description  —  dependent  on  the  possibility  of  paying 
money  rent  —  only  to  be  observed  on  a  considerable  scale  in  Ire- 
land—  Disadvantages  when  compared  with  other  classes  of  peas- 
ant rents  —  Want  of  external  restraints  on  a  too  rapid  increase  of 
numbers  —  Want  of  assistance  of  custom  and  prescription  in  keep- 
ing rents  moderate —  Want  of  a  common  interest  between  landlord 
and  tenant  as  direct  and  obvious  as  in  other  classes  of  peasant 
rents  —  Advantages  —  Facilities  of  tenants  to  change  their  charac- 
ter, and  assume  the  rank  of  farmers  —  Connection  of  cottier  rents 
with  wages  —  Modes  in  which  cottier  rents  may  increase  —  differ- 
ent results  of  each 129 

CHAPTER  VI. 
PEASANT  RENTS  IN  GENERAL. 

Summary  of  Peasant  Rents  —  Invariable  connexion  between  peasant 
rents  and  wages  —  Influence  on  agricultural  production  —  On  the 
numbers  of  the  non-agricultural  classes  —  On  the  identity  (com- 
mon to  all  classes  of  peasant  rents)  of  the  interests  of  the  landlords 
with  those  of  their  tenantry  and  the  community  —  On  the  causes 
of  the  long  duration  of  the  systems  of  primary  or  peasant  rents  — 
Division  of  such  rents  according  to  their  different  tendencies  to 
change,  into  four  portions —  Difficulty  in  producing  motion  in  the 
last  and  largest  portion  —  Cause  of  this- —  actual  penury  of  the  cul- 
tivators, and  reluctance  or  inability  of  landlords  to  make  a  direct 
sacrifice  of  income  —  Observations  on  certain  notions  as  to  rent 
which  are  inconsistent  with  those  brought  to  light  by  the  review  of 
peasant  rents  .  .  .  .  .....  .  .  141 

APPENDIX. 
PROOFS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS 169 


PEASANT  RENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

DIVISION   OF   THE   SUBJECT. 

SECTION  I. 

On  the  Origin  of  Rents  :  on  their  Division  into  Primary  and  Second- 
ary, or  Peasant  and  Farmer's  Rents. 

WHEN  mankind  have  become  sufficiently  numerous  to  be 
driven  from  the  pastoral  state  to  agriculture  for  subsistence, 
and  before  sufficient  funds  have  accumulated  in  the  posses- 
sion of  others  to  supply  the  body  of  the  people  with  their 
daily  bread,  they  must  extract  it  with  their  own  hands  from 
the  soil,  or  they  must  starve.  While  thus  circumstanced 
they  may,  or  may  not,  be  themselves  the  owners  of  the 
implements,  seed,  &c.  by  the  assistance  of  which  their  man- 
ual labor  applied  to  the  soil  produces  them  a  continuous 
maintenance ;  a  stock  which  if  used  for  any  other  purpose 
must  soon  be  exhausted  :  such  a  stock,  if  they  possess  it,  is 
in  their  peculiar  circumstances  entirely  deprived  of  its  mobil- 
ity ;  it  is  convertible  to  no  other  purpose,  and  is  confined  to 
the  task  of  assisting  cultivation,  by  the  same  necessity  which 
B  1 


2  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  i. 

compels  its  owners  to  extract  their  food  from  the  earth  :  and 
the  .returns  to  stock  so  situated,  like  the  returns  to  the  labors 
of  its  owners  (or  their  wages),  must  be  governed  by  the 
terms  on  which  land  can  be  obtained.  Should  the  surface 
of  the  country  which  such  a  people  inhabit  be  appropriated, 
the  only  chance  which  the  cultivator  has  of  being  allowed  to 
occupy  that  portion  of  it,  from  which  he  is  to  draw  his  sub- 
sistence, rests  upon  his  being  able  to  pay  some  tribute  to  the 
owner.  The  power  of  the  earth  to  yield,  even  to  the  rudest 
labors  of  mankind,  more  than  is  necessary  for  the  subsistence 
of  the  cultivator  himself,  enables  him  to  pay  such  a  tribute  : 
hence  the  origin  of  rent.  A  very  large  proportion  of  the  in- 
habitants of  the  whole  earth  are  precisely  in  the  circum- 
stances we  have  been  describing ;  sufficiently  numerous  to 
have  resorted  to  agriculture  ;  too  rude  to  possess  any  accumu- 
lated fund  in  the  shape  of  capital,  from  which  the  wages  of 
the  laboring  cultivators  can  be  advanced.  These  cultivators 
in  such  a  state  of  society  comprise  always,  from  causes  we 
shall  hereafter  arrive  in  sight  of,  an  overwhelming  majority 
of  the  nation.  As  the  land  is  then  the  direct  source  of  the 
subsistence  of  the  population,  so  the  nature  of  the  property 
established  in  the  land,  and  the  forms  and  terms  of  tenancy 
to  which  that  property  gives  birth,  furnish  to  the  people  the 
most  influential  elements  of  their  national  character.  We 
may  be  prepared  therefore  to  see  without  surprise,  the  dif- 
ferent systems  of  rent  which  in  this  state  of  things  have 
arisen  out  of  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  different  people, 
forming  the  main  ties  which  hold  society  together,  deter- 
mining the  nature  of  the  connection  between  the  governing 
part  of  the  community  and  the  governed,  and  stamping  on 


SEC.  I.]  DIVISION  OF  THE  SUBJECT.  3 

a  very  large  portion  of  the  population  of  the  whole  globe 
their  most  striking  features,  social,  political,  and  moral. 

If  indeed  it  were  truey  as  some  have  fancied,  that  lands 
were  always  first  appropriated  by  those  who  are  willing  to 
bestow  pains  on  their  cultivation ;  if  in  the  history  of  man- 
kind it  were  an  ordinary  fact,  that  the  uncultivated  lands 
of  a  country  were  open  to  the  industry  or  necessities  of  all 
its  population ;  then  some  time  would  elapse  in  the  prog- 
ress of  agricultural  nations  before  rents  made  their  appear- 
ance at  all;  and  when  they  did  appear,  still,  while  any 
portion  of  the  country  remained  unoccupied,  the  rents  paid 
on  the  lands  already  cultivated  would  only  be  in  exact  pro- 
portion to  their  superiority,  from  position  or  goodness,  over 
the  vacant  spots. 

Such  a  state  of  things  might  occur;  it  is  an  abstract 
possibility :  but  the  past  history  and  present  state  of  the 
world  yield  abundant  testimony,  that  it  neither  is,  nor  ever 
has  been,  a  practical  truth,  and  that  the  assumption  of  it 
as  the  basis  of  systems  of  political  philosophy,  is  a  mere 
fallacy. 

When  men  begin  to  unite  in  the  form  of  an  agricultural 
community,  trje  political  notion  they  seem  constantly  to 
adopt  first,  is  that  of  an  exclusive  right,  existing  somewhere, 
to  the  soil  of  the  country  they  inhabit.  Their  circum- 
stances, their  prejudices,  their  ideas  of  justice  or  of  expe- 
diency, lead  them,  almost  universally,  to  vest  that  right  in 
their  general  government,  and  in  persons  deriving  their 
rights  from  it. 

The  rudest  people  among  whom  this  can  at  present  be 
observed  are  perhaps  some  of  the  Islanders  of  the  South 


*  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  I. 

Seas.  The  soil  of  the  Society  Islands  is  very  imperfectly 
occupied ;  the  whole  belongs  to  the  sovereign ;  he  portions 
it  among  the  nobles,  and  makes  and  resumes  grants  at  his 
pleasure.  The  body  of  the  people,  who  live  on  certain 
edible  roots  peculiar  to  the  country,  which  they  cultivate 
with  considerable  care,  receive  from  the  nobles,  in  their 
turn,  permission  to  occupy  smaller  portions.  They  are  thus 
dependent  on  the  chiefs  for  the  means  of  existence,  and  they 
pay  a  tribute,  a  rent,  in  the  shape  of  labor  and  services 
performed  on  other  lands.1 

On  the  continent  of  America,  the  institutions  of  those 
people,  who  before  its  discovery  had  resorted  to  agriculture 
for  subsistence,  indicate  also  an  early  and  complete  appro- 
priation of  the  soil  by  the  state.  In  Mexico  there  were 
crown  lands  cultivated  by  the  services  of  those  classes  who 
were  too  poor  to  contribute  to  the  revenue  of  the  state  in 
any  other  manner.  There  existed  too  a  body  of  about  3000 
nobles  possessed  of  distinct  hereditary  property  in  land. 
"  The  tenure  by  which  the  great  body  of  the  people  held 
"  their  property  was  very  different.  In  every  district  a 
"  certain  quantity  of  land  was  measured  out  in  proportion 
"to  the  number  of  families.  This  was  cultivated  by  the 
"joint  labor  of  the  whole:  its  produce  was  deposited  in 
"  a  common  storehouse,  and  divided  among  them  accord- 
ing to  their  respective  exigencies."  While  in  Peru  "all 
"  the  lands  capable  of  cultivation  were  divided  into  three 
"  shares.  One  was  consecrated  to  the  Sun,  and  the  produce 
"  of  it  was  applied  to  the  erection  of  temples,  and  furnishing 
"  what  was  requisite  towards  celebrating  the  public  rites  of 
1  Appendix  I. 


SEC.  I.]  DIVISION   OF  THE  SUBJECT.  5 

"  religion.  The  second  belonged  to  the  Inca,  and  was  set 
"apart  as  the  provision  made  by  the  community  for  the 
"  support  of  government;  The  third  and  largest  share  was 
"  reserved  for  the  maintenance  of  the  people  among  whom 
"  it  was  parcelled  out.  Neither  individuals,  however,  nor 
"  communities  had  a  right  of  exclusive  property  in  the  pdr- 
"  tion  set  apart  for  their  use.  They  possessed  it  only  for 
"a  year,  at  the  expiration  of  which,  a  new  division  was 
"made  in  proportion  to  the  rank,  the  number,  and  the 
"  exigencies  of  each  family."  l 

Throughout  Asia,  the  sovereigns  have  ever  been  in  the 
possession  of  an  exclusive  title  to  the  soil  of  their  dominions, 
and  they  have  preserved  that  title  in  a  state  of  singular  and 
inauspicious  integrity,  undivided,  as  well  as  unimpaired. 
The  people  are  there  universally  the  tenants  of  the  sovereign, 
who  is  the  sole  proprietor ;  usurpations  of  his  officers  alone 
occasionally  break  the  links  of  the  chain  of  dependence  for 
a  time.  It  is  this  universal  dependence  on  the  throne  for 
the  means  of  supporting  life,  which  is  the  real  foundation  of 
the  unbroken  despotism  of  the  Eastern  world,  as  it  is  of  the 
revenue  of  the  sovereigns,  and  of  the  form  which  society 
assumes  beneath  their  feet. 

In  modern  Europe  the  same  rights  once  prevailed,  but 
here  they  were  soon  moderated,  and  finally  disappeared. 
The  subordinate  chiefs,  who  followed  in  crowds  the  leaders 
of  the  barbarian  irruptions,  were  little  accustomed  to 
tolerate  constant  dependence  and  regular  government,  and 
utterly  unfit  to  become  its  support  and  agents.  Yet  even 
by  them,  the  abstract  right  of  the  sovereign  to  the  soil  was 

1  Robertson's  America,  Book  vii. 


6  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  I. 

very  generally  recognized.  Traces  of  it  are  still  preserved  in 
the  language  of  our  laws;  the  highest  title  a  subject  can 
claim  is  that  of  tenant  of  the  fee,  and  the  terms  of  this 
tenancy  made  originally  the  only  difference  in  the  extent  of 
interests  in  estates. 

The  steps  by  which  beneficiaries  became  the  real  pro- 
prietors are  familiar  to  almost  all  classes  of  readers ;  it  is 
enough  for  our  present  purpose  to  see  that  in  Europe,  as  in 
Asia  and  South  America,  the  soil  was  practically  appropriated 
by  the  sovereign  or  a  limited  number  of  individuals,  at  a  time 
when  the  bulk  of  the  people  were  wholly  dependent  on  the 
occupation  of  portions  of  it  for  their  subsistence,  and  when 
they  became  therefore,  inevitably,  tributary  to  its  owners. 

The  United  States  of  North  America,  though  often  re- 
ferred to  in  support  of  different  views,  afford  another 
remarkable  instance  of  the  power  vested  in  the  hands  of 
the  owners  of  the  soil,  when  its  occupation  offers  the  only 
means  of  subsistence  to  the  people.  The  territories  of 
the  Union  still  unoccupied,  from  the  Canadian  border  to 
the  shores  of  the  Floridas,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific, 
are  admitted,  in  law  and  practice,  to  be  the  property  of 
the  general  government.  They  can  be  occupied  only  with 
its  consent,  in  spots  fixed  on  and  allotted  by  its  servants, 
and  on  the  condition  of  a  previous  money  payment.  That 
government  does  not,  it  is  true,  convert  the  successive 
shoals  of  fresh  applicants  into  tenants,  because  its  policy 
rejects  such  a  measure.  Its  legislators  inherited  from  the 
other  hemisphere  at  the  outset  of  their  career  the  advan- 
tages of  an  experience  accumulated  during  centuries  of 
progressive  civilization :  they  saw,  that  the  power  and  re- 


SEC.  i.]  DIVISION  OF  THE  SUBJECT.  7 

sources  of  their  young  government  were  likely  to  be 
increased  more  effectually  by  the  rapid  formation  of  a  race 
of  proprietors,  than  by  the  creation  of  a  class  of  state 
tenantry.  It  has  been  suggested,  that  they  may  have  acted 
unwisely  in  overlooking  such  a  mode  of  creating  a  perma- 
nent public  revenue.  Had  they  perversely  entertained  the 
will  to  do  so,  unquestionably  they  had  the  power.  Their 
rapidly  increasing  numbers  could  have  been  sustained  only 
by  the  spread  of  cultivation.  As  fresh  settlements  became 
necessary  to  the  maintenance  of  the  people,  the  govern- 
ment might  have  made  its  own  terms  when  granting  the 
space  from  which  alone  the  population  could  obtain  sub- 
sistence ;  and  this  without  parting  with  the  property  of  the 
soil.  Had  this  been  done,  the  career  of  the  nation,  essen- 
tially different  from  what  it  has  been,  would  more  closely 
have  resembled  that  of  the  people  of  the  old  world. 

In  the  English  colonies  of  Australia,  an  unsettled  terri- 
tory, which  will  bear  comparison  with  the  wastes  of  North 
America  in  extent,  is  the  acknowledged  property  of  the 
crown.  A  system  of  disposing  of  the  public  lands  has 
lately  been  adopted,  which  is  a  mean  between  an  absolute 
sale  and  the  creation  of  a  permanent  tenantry.1  The  per- 
son receiving  a  grant  is  subject  to  a  moderate  rent,  which 
he  may  commute  for  the  payment  of  a  specific  sum.2 

Throughout  central  Africa  the  consent  of  the  king  or 
chief  must  be  obtained,  before  any  spot  of  ground  can  be 

1  Emigration  Report,  p.  397. 

2  In  proposing  present  terms  to  persons  inclined  to  settle  at  the  Swan 
River,  the  Colonial  Office  formally  declares  an  intention  of  granting  lands 
after  1830,  on  such  conditions  only,  as  may  then  seem  adviseable  to  Gov- 
ernment, 


8  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  I. 

cultivated.1  We  know  but  little  of  the  subsequent  rights 
of  the  cultivator  or  of  his  connection  with  the  sovereign ; 
but  the  necessity  of  applying  for  permission  implies  a  power 
to  withhold  it,  or  to  grant  it  conditionally. 

The  past  history  and  present  state  therefore  of  the  old 
and  new  world,  yield  abundant  proof  of  the  visionary 
nature  of  those  notions  as  to  the  origin  of  rent,  which  rest 
upon  an  assumption,  that  it  is  never  the  immediate  result 
of  cultivation ;  and  that  while  any  land  remains  unoccupied, 
no  rent  will  be  paid  for  the  cultivated  part,  except  such  as 
is  warranted  by  its  superiority  over  that  part  which  is  sup- 
posed to  be  always  open  to  the  industry  of  the  community. 

We  come  back  then  to  the  proposition,  that,  in  the  actual 
progress  of  human  society,  rent  has  usually  originated  in 
the  appropriation  of  the  soil,  at  a  time  when  the  bulk  of  the 
people  must  cultivate  it  on  such  terms  as  they  can  obtain, 
or  starve ;  and  when  their  scanty  capital  of  implements, 
seed,  &c.  being  utterly  insufficient  to  secure  their  main- 
tenance in  any  other  occupation  than  that  of  agriculture,  is 
chained  with  themselves  to  the  land  by  an  overpowering 
necessity.  The  necessity  then,  which  compels  them  to  pay 
a  rent,  it  need  hardly  be  observed,  is  wholly  independent  of 
any  difference  in  the  quality  of  the  ground  they  occupy, 
and  would  not  be  removed  were  the  soils  all  equalized. 

The  rents  thus  paid  by  the  laborer,  who  extracts  his  own 
wages  from  the  earth,  may  be  called  peasant  rents,  using  the 
term  peasant  to  indicate  an  occupier  of  the  ground  who 
depends  on  his  own  labor  for  its  cultivation ;  or  they  may 
be  called  primary  rents,  because,  in  the  order  of  their 

l  Park's  Travels  in  Africa,  p.  260. 


SEC.  I.]  DIVISION  OF  THE  SUBJECT.  9 

appearance  in  the  progress  of  nations  toward  civilization, 
they  invariably  precede  that  other  class  of  rents  to  which 
we  have  now  to  advert. 

On  the  Origin  of  Secondary  or  Farmer's  Rents. 

Much  time  seldom  elapses,  after  the  formation  of  an 
agricultural  community,  before  some  imperfect  separation 
takes  place  between  the  departments  of  labor.  The  body 
of  artizans  and  mechanics  bear  at  first  a  very  small  propor- 
tion to  the  whole  numbers  of  the  people :  some  of  these 
soon  become  able  to  store  up  such  a  quantity  of  food, 
implements,  and  materials,  as  enable  them  to  feed  and 
employ  others,  to  take  the  results  of  their  labour,  and  to 
exchange  them  again  for  more  food,  and  all  that  is  neces- 
sary to  continue  the  process.  A  class  of  capitalists  is  thus 
formed,  distinct  from  that  of  laborers  and  landlords.  This 
class  sometimes  (but,  taking  the  earth  throughout,  very 
rarely)  makes  its  appearance  on  the  land,  and  takes  charge 
of  its  cultivation.  The  agricultural  laborer  no  longer  de- 
pends for  subsistence  upon  the  crops  he  raises  from  the 
soil;  and  the  landlord,  instead  of  receiving  his  share 
directly  from  the  hands  of  the  laborer,  receives  it  indirectly 
through  those  of  the  new  employer. 

Since  these  rents  invariably  succeed  in  the  order  of 
civilization  the  class  already  pointed  out,  they  may  be 
called  secondary  rents;  or,  because  the  capitalist,  who 
becomes  responsible  for  the  rent  of  land  which  he  cul- 
tivates by  the  labor  of  others,  is  usually  called  a  farmer, 
these  rents  may  conveniently  be  called  farmer's  rents,  and 
so  distinguished  from  peasant  rents. 


10  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  I. 

There  are  cases,  no  doubt,  in  which  it  is  difficult  to  deter- 
mine to  which  of  these  two  classes,  the  peasant  or  farmer's 
rents,  the  rents  paid  by  particular  individuals  belong.  But 
this  is  a  circumstance  which  need  embarrass  the  enquiries 
of  none  but  those  who  delight  in  surrounding  a  subject  with 
refinements  and  difficulties  of  their  own  creation.  We 
shall  find  the  two  classes  over  vast  regions  of  the  globe 
distinctly  and  broadly  separated  in  their  form,  their  effects, 
and  the  causes  of  their  variations :  and  it  would  be  very 
useless  trifling,  to  linger  and  puzzle  over  those  very  limited 
spots  alone,  where  they  are  in  a  state  of  mixture  and 
confusion. 

The  circumstances  which  determine  the  amount  of  peas- 
ant rents  are  much  less  complex  than  those  which  determine 
the  amount  of  the  farmer's  rents.  In  the  case  of  these  last, 
the  amount  of  wages  is  first  determined  by  causes  foreign 
to  the  contract  between  the  proprietor  and  the  tenant,  and 
then  the  amount  of  rent  is  strictly  limited  by  the  amount  of 
the  profits  on  the  capital  used  ;  which  capital,  if  those  profits 
are  not  realized,  may  be  withdrawn  to  another  employment. 
The  causes  which  determine  the  ordinary  rate  of  those  profits 
are  also  independent  of  the  contract  between  the  landlord  and 
tenant,  and  form  a  distinct  subject  of  enquiry.  In  the  case 
of  the  first  class,  or  peasant  rents,  the  amount  both  of  wages 
and  rents  is  determined  solely  by  the  bargain  made  between 
the  proprietors  and  a  set  of  laborers,  whose  necessities  chain 
them  to  the  soil  with  the  small  capital  they  use  to  aid  their 
labour  and  procure  food ;  and  the  causes  which  govern  the 
terms  of  that  bargain  are  comparatively  simple. 

The  class  of  secondary  or  farmer's  rents  is  that  with  which 


SEC.  i.]  DIVISION  OF  THE  SUBJECT.  11 

we  are  the  most  familiar  in  England,  or  rather  that  with  which 
we  are  alone  familiar ;  and  this  familiarity  has  caused  peas- 
ant rents  in  their  numerous  varieties  not  only  to  be  neglected 
in  our  investigations,  but,  in  truth,  to  be  overlooked  alto- 
gether. And  yet,  as  has  been  before  suggested,  compared 
with  these,  the  mass  of  farmer's  rents  to  be  found  on  the 
globe  is  very  small.  In  England  and  in  most  parts  of 
the  Netherlands  secondary  rents  exclusively  prevail.  In 
the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  they  are  only  at  this  moment 
displacing  the  last  remains  of  the  more  primitive  form  :  in 
France,  before  the  revolution,  they  were  found  on  about  one- 
seventh  part  of  the  land  :  in  the  other  countries  of  Europe, 
they  are  much  more  rare,  throughout  Asia  hardly  known. 
We  shall  be  making  on  the  whole  an  extravagant  allowance, 
if  we  suppose  them  to  occupy  one-hundredth  part  of  the 
cultivated  surface  of  the  habitable  globe. 

If  we  consider  principally  the  numbers  of  the  human  race 
whose  fate  they  influence,  or  the  extent  of  the  regions  of 
which  the  social  condition  receives  its  impress  from  them, 
then  peasant  rents  under  their  various  forms  will  be  the  most 
interesting  and  important.  If  our  taste  leads  us  to  under- 
take the  discussion  of  these  subjects  as  a  scientific  problem, 
the  main  interest  of  which  consists  in  the  exercise  it  affords 
to  the  powers  of  analysis  and  combination,  perhaps  the 
second  class  (or  farmer's  rents)  may  not  be  undeserving  of 
the  exclusive  attention  it  has  received. 


12  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  I. 


SECTION  II. 

On  Peasant  Rents :  on  their  Separation  into  Labor,  Metayer,  Ryot, 
and  Cottier  Rents. 

WHILE  the  laborer  is  confined  to  the  culture  of  the  soil  on 
his  own  account,  because  it  is  in  that  manner  alone  that  he 
can  obtain  access  to  the  wages  on  which  he  is  to  subsist,  the 
form  and  amount  of  the  Rents  he  pays  are  determined  by 
a  direct  contract  between  himself  and  the  proprietor.  The 
provisions  of  these  contracts  are  influenced  sometimes  by 
the  laws,  and  almost  always  by  the  long  established  usages, 
of  the  countries  in  which  they  are  made.  The  main  object 
in  all  is,  to  secure  a  revenue  to  the  proprietors  with  the 
least  practicable  amount  of  trouble  or  risk  on  their  part. 

Though  governed  in  common  by  some  important  prin- 
ciples, the  variety  in  the  minuter  details  of  this  class  of 
Rents  is  of  course  almost  infinite.  But  men  will  be  driven 
in  similar  situations  to  very  similar  expedients,  and  the  gen- 
eral mass  of  peasant  rents  may  be  separated  into  four  great 
divisions,  comprising  ist,  Labor  Rents,  2dly,  Metayer  Rents, 
3dly,  Ryot  Rents  (borrowing  the  last  term  from  the  country 
in  which  we  are  most  familiar  with  them,  India) . 

These  three  will  be  found  occupying  in  contiguous  masses 
the  breadth  of  the  old  world,  from  the  Canary  Islands  to  the 
shores  of  China  and  the  Pacific,  and  deciding,  each  in  its 
own  sphere,  not  merely  the  economical  relations  of  the  land- 
lords and  tenants,  but  the  political  and  social  condition  of 
the  mass  of  the  people. 

To  these  must  be  added  a  fourth  division,  that  of  Cottier 


SEC.  ii.]  DIVISION  OF  THE   SUBJECT.  13 

Rents,  or  Rents  paid  by  a  laborer  extracting  his  own  wages 
from  the  land,  but  paying  his  rent  in  money,  as  in  Ireland 
and  part  of  Scotland.  This  class  is  small,  but  peculiarly 
interesting  to  Englishmen,  from  the  fact  of  its  prevalence  in 
the  sister  island,  and  from  the  influence  it  has  exercised,  and 
seems  likely  for  some  time  yet  to  exercise,  over  the  progress 
and  circumstances  of  the  Irish  people. 


CHAPTER  II. 

SECTION  I. 

Labor  Rents,  or  Serf  Rents. 

THE  landed  proprietors  of  rude  nations  usually  dislike, 
and  are  unfit  for,  the  task  of  superintending  labor,  and  if 
they  can  rely,  through  the  receipt  of  produce  rents,  on  a 
supply  of  necessaries  suited  to  their  purposes,  they  uni- 
formly throw  upon  the  peasant  the  whole  business  of  cultiva- 
tion. But  their  being  able  to  do  this  in  security  supposes 
in  the  tenants  themselves,  some  skill,  and  habits  of  voluntary 
and  regular  labor  :  they  must  be  trust-worthy  too,  to  a  certain 
extent.  There  is,  however,  a  point  in  the  progress  of  civil- 
ization, below  which  the  body  of  the  people  do  not  possess 
these  qualifications :  when,  though  driven  to  agriculture  by 
their  numbers,  they  still  possess  many  of  the  qualities  of  the 
savage ;  and  are  not  yet  ripe  for  the  regular  payment  of 
produce  or  money  rents  ;  because  their  ignorance,  their  im- 
patience of  toil,  and  their  improvidence,  would  expose  the 
proprietor  to  considerable  danger  of  starvation,  if  he  de- 
pended on  their  punctuality  for  the  support  of  himself,  and 
his  household. 

However  averse  to  the  employment,  the  proprietors  may 
be,  they  must  in  this  stage  of  society,  take  some  share  in  the 
burthen  of  conducting  cultivation.  They  may  contrive,  how- 
ever, to  get  rid  of  the  task  of  raising  food  for  the  laborers, 

14 


SEC.  i.]  LABOR   OR  SERF  RENTS.  15 

who  are  the  instruments  of  that  cultivation.  They  usually 
set  aside  for  their  use  a  portion  of  the  estate,  and  leave  them 
to  extract  their  own  subsistence  from  it,  at  their  own  risk. 
They  exact  as  a  rent  for  the  land  thus  abandoned,  a  certain 
quantity  of  labor,  to  be  used  upon  the  remaining  portion  of 
the  estate,  which  is  retained  in  the  hands  of  the  proprietor. 
Such  is  the  expedient  which  seems  generally  to  have  sug- 
gested itself  to  the  owners  of  the  soil,  while  the  laborers  have 
been  in  this  state  of  half  civilization,  and  while  no  capitalists 
yet  existed. 

In  the  Society  Islands,  the  chiefs  allot  to  their  tenants 
about  sixty  acres  of  land  each.  The  rent  paid  for  these  con- 
sists of  work  done  for  a  certain  number  of  days  at  the  call 
of  the  chief  on  his  own  demesne  farm.  They  are  perhaps 
the  rudest  people  among  whom  this  mode  of  occupying  and 
cultivating  the  soil  can  be  observed  ;  and  it  is  instructive  to 
remark  among  these  Islanders  of  the  Antipodes,  the  necessi- 
ties of  their  position  giving  birth  to  a  system,  which  was  once 
nearly  universal  in  Europe,  and  which  still  prevails  over  the 
larger  portion  of  it. 

Arrangements  somewhat  similar  to  these  exist  in  some 
of  our  West  Indian  Islands,  between  the  negroes  and  the 
owners  of  the  estates  to  which  they  belong. 

But  the  people  by  whom  labor  rents  were  established  on 
the  widest  scale,  and  were  communicated  to  the  vast  coun- 
tries in  which  they  did,  or  do,  principally  prevail,  were  the 
nations  of  Eastern  Europe,  the  inhabitants  of  the  deserts  of 
Germany,  and  the  wastes  beyond  the  Vistula.  Some  of  the 
tribes,  who  invaded  the  lower  empire,  had  begun  to  resort 
partially  to  agriculture  for  subsistence  before  the  period  of 


16  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CHAP.  11. 

their  irruption,  and  it  is  probable  that  this  system  was  even 
then  not  unknown  to  them ;  but  however  this  may  have  been, 
they  certainly  established  it  most  extensively  throughout 
their  conquests  in  Western  Europe ;  and  when  their  own 
fastnesses,  the  wastes  from  which  they  had  migrated,  be- 
came more  regularly  peopled  and  settled,  this  was  the  mode 
of  cultivating  the  land,  which  universally  prevailed  there. 
It  prevails  there  still.  In  their  conquests  westward  of  the 
Rhine,  it  took  for  a  time  strong  hold  of  the  habits  of  the 
people  to  whom  they  introduced  it,  has  left  deep  traces 
in  their  laws,  and  yet  lingers  in  particular  spots ;  but  from 
this  portion  of  Europe,  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  some 
nations,  and  the  advance  of  civilization  in  all,  have  repelled 
the  system,  which  has  given  place  to  other  forms  of 
the  relation  between  proprietors  and  tenants.  In  the  coun- 
tries eastward  of  the  Rhine  it  is  still  found  paramount ;  not 
wholly  unbroken,  and  shewing  every  where  symptoms  of 
gradual  or  approaching  change,  but  fashioning  still  the  frame 
of  society,  and  exercising  a  predominant  influence  over  the 
industry  and  fortunes  of  all  ranks  of  people. 

These  labor  rents  may,  with  some  little  extension  of  the 
ordinary  use  of  the  term  serf,  be  all  called  serf  rents. 

As  labor  or  serf  rents  have  gradually  receded  from  the 
West,  so  it  is  on  the  western  extremity  of  the  countries  in 
which  they  still  prevail,  that  their  decomposition  is  the  most 
advanced.  To  observe  them,  therefore,  in  their  complete 
state,  we  must  go  at  once  to  the  east  of  Europe,  and  begin 
with  Russia,  and  may  trace  them  thence,  gradually  decaying 
in  form  and  spirit  through  Hungary,  Livonia,  Poland,  Prus- 
sia, and  Germany,  to  the  Rhine,  on  the  borders  of  which 


SEC  ii.]  LABOR    OR   SERF  RENTS.  17 

they  melt  away  into  different  systems,  and  are  no  longer  to 
be  recognized. 

SECTION  II. 
On  Labor  or  Serf  Rents  in  Russia. 

IN  Russia  the  peasants,  who  are  settled  on  the  soil,  re- 
ceive from  the  proprietor  a  quantity  of  land,  great  or  small, 
as  his  discretion  or  convenience  dictate,  from  which  they 
extract  their  wages.  They  are  bound  to  work  on  the  de- 
mesnes of  the  landowners  three  days  in  the  week.  The  obli- 
gation would  be  light,  were  it  not  for  the  results  it  has  led 
to.  In  Russia  this  mode  of  occupying  the  soil  has  estab- 
lished the  complete  personal  bondage  of  the  peasant :  he 
has  become,  with  all  his  family  and  descendants,  the  slave 
of  the  lord.  Such  too  has  been  the  result  of  similar  relations 
between  the  proprietor  and  his  tenants,  wherever  they  have 
prevailed  among  semi-barbarous  people  and  feeble  general 
governments.1  From  the  countries  westward  of  Russia  the 
same  state  of  bondage,  once  common,  is  disappearing  by 
degrees.  In  Russia,  as  in  its  last  strong  hold,  it  still  subsists 
entire. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  trace  the  steps  by  which  labor  rents 
prepared  so  generally  the  servile  condition  of  the  peasants, 

1  Sweden  and  Norway  must  be  excepted.  No  information,  written  or 
verbal,  which  I  have  been  able  to  collect,  has  made  me  feel  satisfied  that 
I  understand  the  real  history  of  the  changes  in  the  tenure,  or  in  the  mode 
of  occupying  the  soil,  which  have  taken  place  in  those  countries.  I  can 
only  suspect  that  the  progress  of  Sweden  in  these  respects  has  resembled, 
in  some  measure,  that  of  the  German  nations :  while  that  of  Norway  has 
been  distinct  and  very  peculiar.  Labor  rents,  however,  under  various 
modifications  have  been,  and  are  now,  known  in  both  countries. 
C 


18  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

and  covered  Europe  during  the  middle  ages  with  a  race  of 
predial  bonds-men.  A  rude  people  dependent  upon  their 
own  labor  on  their  allotment  for  their  support,  were  often 
exposed,  from  the  failure  of  the  crops  or  the  ravages  of  war, 
to  utter  destitution.  The  lord  was  usually  able,  out  of  his 
store-houses,  to  afford  them  some  relief,  which  they  had  no 
means  of  repaying  but  by  additional  labor.  From  this  and 
other  causes,  the  serf  did,  and  does,  perpetually  owe  to  his 
lord  nearly  the  whole  of  his  time.1  Besides  this,  they  were 
mainly  dependent  on  him  for  protection  from  strangers  and 
from  each  other.  From  his  domestic  tribunal,  he  settled 
their  differences  and  punished  their  faults  with  an  authority 
which  the  general  government  was  in  no  condition  to  super- 
sede, and  which  became  at  last  sanctioned  by  usage  and 
equivalent  to  law.  The  patriarchal  authority  of  the  High- 
land chiefs  had  no  other  source.  In  them  it  was  at  once  dig- 
nified and  moderated  by  supposed  ties  of  blood.  Elsewhere 
it  received  no  such  mitigation.  Their  time  and  their  persons 
being  thus  abandoned  to  the  will  of  their  superiors,  the  ten- 
antry had  no  means  of  resisting  further  encroachments. 
One  of  the  most  general  seems  to  have  been,  the  establish- 
ment of  a  right  by  which  the  landlord,  providing  the  serf 
with  subsistence,  might  withdraw  him  altogether  from  the 
soil  on  which  he  had  placed  him,  to  employ  him  elsewhere 
at  pleasure.  Then  followed  an  understanding  that  the  flight 
of  a  serf  from  the  estate  of  his  landlord,  employer,  and  judge, 
was  an  offence  and  an  injury.  This  once  sanctioned  by  law 

1  See  Bright's  description  of  what  takes  place  in  Hungary  even  now, 
although  the  Austrian  government  has  interposed  to  protect,  to  a  certain 
extent,  the  right  of  the  peasantry.  —  Bright's  Hungary,  p.  114.  Appendix  II. 


SEC.  II.]  LABOR    OR   SERF  RENTS.  19 

and  usage,  the  chains  of  the  serf  were  rivetted,  and  he  be- 
came a  slave,  the  property  of  a  master.  In  Russia  he  is  so 
still :  but  successive  modifications  have  every  where  else  re- 
endowed  him  with  at  least  some  of  the  privileges  of  a  free- 
man. 

The  descent  of  the  peasants  towards  actual  servitude  did 
not  perhaps,  in  every  case,  follow  the  precise  track  here 
marked  out.  The  nations  with  whom  labor  rents  originated 
in  Europe  were  familiar  with  domestic  slavery  before  they 
resorted  to  agriculture  for  subsistence,  and  some  of  their 
first  tenants  were  doubtless  already  slaves.  But  when  we 
observe,  not  a  portion  of  the  people  in  a  state  of  slavery, 
but  the  whole  body  of  peasantry  in  a  wholly  agricultural 
nation,  as  in  Russia  and  formerly  in  Hungary,  it  is  then 
impossible  not  to  believe  that  such  extensive  servitude  has 
closed  gradually  round  their  race.  The  Russians  themselves 
contend,  that  the  bondage  of  their  peasantry  was  not  com- 
plete, till  so  late  as-  the  reign  of  Czar  Boris  Godounoff,  who 
mounted  the  throne  in  I6O3.1 

In  the  Georgian  provinces  of  Russia,  the  owner  receives 
from  the  peasants  a  mixture  of  produce  rents  and  labor : 
they  work  for  him  only  one  day  in  the  week  instead  of  three, 
and  pay  one  seventh  of  the  crops  raised  on  their  allotments.2 
With  this  and  perhaps  other  local  exceptions,  the  body  of 

1  General  Boltin  was  encouraged  by  Catharine  II.  to  publish  (in  Russia) 
some  researches  on  the  origin  of  slavery  in  Russia,  and  as  such  was  his 
conclusion,  it  rests  certainly  on  no  mean  authority.     Before  the  time  of 
Boris  Godounoff,  General  Boltin  asserts,  that  the  only  real  slaves  in  Russia 
were  prisoners  taken  from  an  enemy,  and  that  the  peasants  were  reduced 
to  slavery  (asservis)  after  that  epoch.     Storch,  Vol.  VI.  p.  310. 

2  See  Gamba,  Voy.  dans  la  Russ.  Tom.  II.  p.  84. 


20  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

Russian  serfs  who  are  actual  cultivators,  pay  labor  rents, 
nominally  at  the  rate  of  three  days  labor  in  the  week,  for 
their  allotments,  but  in  fact  their  condition  has  degenerated 
into  a  state  of  complete  personal  bondage,  and  the  demands 
of  the  proprietor,  though  influenced  by  custom,  are  really 
limited  only  by  his  own  forbearance.  The  money  commu- 
tation of  these  labor  rents,  when  they  are  permitted  to  make 
one,  which  they  very  generally  are,  is  called  like  the  pay- 
ments from  the  personal  slaves,  obroc  or  abroc,  and  is  com- 
pletely arbitrary,  and  settled  by  the  master  according  to  his 
suspicions  of  their  ability.1 

But  even  in  Russia,  the  bondage  of  the  serfs,  although 
more  entire  than  elsewhere,  is  yet,  as  respects  a  large  body, 
perhaps  half  of  the  peasantry,  in  a  state  of  rapid  change. 
That  change  has  originated  with  the  government.  The  exis- 
tence of  very  extensive  crown  domains  may  perhaps  be  con- 
sidered as  an  indication  of  a  backward  state  of  civilization. 
In  other  parts  of  Europe,  they  will  usually  be  found  small 
in  proportion  to  the  advance  of  the  people  in  wealth  and 
numbers.  The  domains  of  the  Russian  sovereign  are 

1  Heber  (late  Bishop  of  Calcutta)  quoted  by  Clarke,  Travels,  Vol.  I.  p. 
165.  The  peasants  belonging  to  the  nobles,  have  their  abrock  regulated  by 
their  means  of  getting  money;  at  an  average  throughout  the  empire  of 
eight  or  ten  roubles.  It  then  becomes  not  a  rent  for  land,  but  a  downright 
tax  on  their  industry.  Each  male  peasant  is  obliged  by  law  to  labor  three 
days  in  each  week  for  his  proprietor.  This  law  takes  effect  on  his  arriving 
at  the  age  of  fifteen.  If  the  proprietor  chooses  to  employ  him  on  the  other 
days  he  may ;  as,  for  example,  in  a  manufactory ;  but  he  then  finds  him  in 
food  and  clothing.  Mutual  advantage  however  generally  relaxes  this  law ; 
and  excepting  such  as  are  selected  for  domestic  servants,  or,  as  above,  are 
employed  in  manufactories,  the  slave  pays  a  certain  abrock  or  rent,  to  be 
allowed  to  work  all  the  week  on  his  own  account.  The  master  is  bound  to 
furnish  him  with  a  house  and  a  certain  portion  of  land. 


SEC.  ii.]  LABOR   OR  SERF  RENTS.  21 

immense,  and  perhaps  more  than  equal  the  estates  of  all  his 
subjects.  This  fact  is  indicated  by  the  number  of  royal 
serfs  :  of  these,  in  1782,  ten  millions  and  a  half  belonged  to 
the  crown.  To  extract  labor  rents  from  such  a  body  of 
people,  that  is  to  employ  them,  as  they  are  employed  by 
subjects  in  raising  produce  for  the  benefit,  and  under  the 
superintendence,  of  their  owner,  was  a  work  clearly  beyond 
the  administrative  capacity  of  any  government.  Induced 
therefore  partly  by  the  necessity  of  the  case,  partly,  we 
may  believe,  by  a  wise  policy,  the  Russian  government  has 
attempted  to  establish  on  the  crown  domains  a  different 
system  of  cultivation,  including  an  almost  total  abolition  of 
labor  rents,  and  a  voluntary  and  very  considerable  modifica- 
tion of  the  sovereign's  power,  as  owner  of  the  serfs.  The 
villages  inhabited  by  the  peasants  of  the  crown  have  been 
formed  into  a  sort  of  corporations ;  the  surrounding  lands 
are  cultivated  by  them  at  a  very  moderate  fixed  rent  or 
abroc :  the  serfs  may  securely  acquire  for  themselves  and 
transmit  to  others  personal  property,  and  what  is  a  more 
important  privilege,  and  one  not  always  conceded  to  their 
class  in  neighbouring  countries  of  more  liberal  institutions, 
(in  Hungary  for  instance),  they  may  purchase  or  inherit 
land.1  In  the  tribunals  instituted  especially  for  the  manage- 
ment of  their  corporations,  two  peasants,  chosen  by  the 
body,  have  a  seat  and  voice  with  the  officers  of  the  emperor.2 

1  This  privilege  was  given  in  1801,  and  in  1810  the  peasants  of  the  crown 
had  purchased  lands  to  the  value  of  two  millions  of  roubles  in  Bank  assig- 
nations.   During  the  same  period,  all  the  other  classes  (not  being  noble)  had 
only  purchased  to  the  amount  of  3..6n..ooo  roubles  in  the  same  paper  money. 

2  For  a  more  detailed  account  of  these  alterations,  see  Storch,  Vol.  VI. 
Note  xix.  p.  266. 


22  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

But  the  right  to  their  personal  services  has  not  been  wholly 
abandoned.  The  serf  is  so  far  attached  to  the  soil  as  to  be 
forbidden  to  leave  his  village  unless  with  a  special  licence, 
which  is  only  granted,  when  granted  at  all,  for  a  limited 
term.  The  Russian  monarchs  have  manufactures  and  mines 
conducted  on  their  own  account.  The  serfs  on  the  crown 
lands  are  still  liable  to  be  taken  from  their  homes  and 
employed  on  these.  They  are  hired  out  occasionally  to  the 
owners  of  such  similar  establishments  as  it  is  thought  politic 
to  encourage ;  and  in  some  of  the  foreign  provinces  united 
to  Russia,  though  not  lately,  it  should  seem,  in  Russia 
proper,  they  are  liable  to  be  sold,  or  to  be  given  away,  or 
granted  with  the  soil  for  a  term,  to  individuals  whom  the  court 
wishes  to  enrich.  Could  this  large  portion  of  the  population 
of  the  empire  be  thoroughly  emancipated,  completely  freed 
from  oppression,  and  enabled  to  collect  and  preserve  capital, 
Russia  would  soon  have  a  third  estate  and  an  efficient  body 
of  cultivators,  fitted  gradually  to  bring  into  action  her  great 
territorial  resources.  The  tenants  on  the  royal  domains 
already  appear  to  be,  on  the  whole,1  in  a  condition  superior 
to  that  of  the  serfs  of  individuals,  but  the  progress  of  their 
improvement  is  retarded  by  causes  not  likely  soon  to  lose 
their  influence.  However  earnestly  the  Emperors  of  Russia 
may  shake  off  the  character  of  owners  of  slaves,  they  will 
evidently  be  obliged  for  some  generations  to  retain  that  of 
despots,  and  there  is  some  danger  that  the  ordinary  defects 
of  their  form  of  government  will  mar  their  really  humane 
efforts  as  landed  proprietors.  The  officers  of  the  Russian 
government  are  proverbially  ill  paid ;  oppression  and  extor- 

l  Storch,  Vol.  IV.  p.  299. 


SEC.  in.]  LABOR    OR  SERF  RENTS.  23 

tion  still  afflict  the  peasantry,  and  the  condition  of  the  serfs 
of  the  crown  is  sometimes  even  worse  than  that  of  the  slaves 
of  the  neighbouring  nobility. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  insensibility  for  which  the  body  of 
the  Russian  peasantry  have  been  renowned,  seems  to  be 
giving  away.  Soon  after  the  accession  of  the  present  Em- 
peror, many  of  the  tenants  of  the  crown  refused  to  pay  their 
abroc  or  rents,  and  the  serfs  of  individuals  to  perform  their 
accustomed  labor.  A  proclamation  appeared,  reproaching 
them  with  entertaining  unreasonable  expectations  of  being 
released  from  rents  and  services  altogether,  and  threatening 
them,  in  a  style  which  it  must  be  confessed  is  truly  oriental, 
with  severe  punishment  if  they  even  petitioned  the  Czar  on 
such  subjects  again.  But  we  must  not  judge  the  conduct  of 
the  Russian  court  by  the  harsh  language  of  a  proclamation 
issued  on  such  an  emergency.  The  spirit  in  which  the 
Czars  have  dealt  with  their  serfs  has  hitherto  been  evidently 
paternal.  The  form  of  their  government  is  theoretically  bad  ; 
but  Russia  offers  at  present  no  materials  for  forming  any  not 
likely  to  be  worse,  and  the  gradual  improvement  in  the  con- 
dition of  such  a  people,  however  slowly  we  see  it  proceed, 
is  probably,  after  all,  safer  in  the  hands  of  the  monarch,  than 
it  would  be  in  their  own,  or  in  those  of  their  masters  the 
nobles. 

SECTION  III. 
Of  Labor  Rents  in  Hungary. 

IN  Hungary,  the  nobles  alone  are  allowed  to  become  the 
proprietors  of  land,  either  by  inheritance  or  purchase. 
They  constitute  about  one  part  in  twenty-one  of  a  population 


24  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  11. 

of  eight  millions.1  Of  the  other  inhabitants,  a  great  majority 
are  peasants  ;  for  in  1777  there  were  only  30,921  artizans  in 
Hungary,  and  their  number  is  said  to  be  not  much  in- 
creased.2 These  peasants  occupy  about  half  the  cultivated 
surface  of  the  country,  and  all  pay  labor  rents. 

Till  the  reign  of  Maria  Theresa,  their  situation  was  nearly 
similar  to  that  of  the  Russian  serf.  They  were  all  attached 
to  the  estates  on  which  they  were  born,  and  subjected  to  ser- 
vices and  payments  wholly  indefinite.  That  Princess  set  the 
example  of  an  earnest  attempt  to  elevate  their  character, 
and  improve  their  circumstances ;  and  the  example  has 
been  followed  in  the  neighbouring  countries  with  zeal  cer- 
tainly, if  not  always  with  judgment  or  success.  The  results 
of  her  own  efforts  were  extremely  imperfect,  and  not  always 
free  from  mischief:  but  it  must  be  remembered,  that  those 
efforts  were  much  cramped  by  the  influence  which  the 
Hungarian  constitution  enabled  the  proprietors  to  exercise, 
in  thwarting  or  modifying  her  measures  for  the  emancipa- 
tion of  their  tenantry. 

By  an  edict  of  hers,  which  the  Hungarians  call  the 
Urbarium,  personal  slavery'  and  attachment  to  the  soil 
were  abolished,  and  the  peasants  declared  to  be  "homines 
liber  a  transmigration's"  On  the  other  hand,  they  were 
declared  mere  tenants  at  will,  whom  the  lord  at  his  pleasure 
might  dismiss  from  the  estate.  But  an  interest  in  the  soil, 

1  Bright's  Hungary,  p.  no.     The  population  of  Hungary  amounts  by 
the  last  returns  to  nearly  ten  millions. 

2  In  the  year  1777,  the  whole  number  of  handicraftsmen,  their  servants, 
and  apprentices,  in  Hungary,  amounted  to  30,921 ;    and  this  number  does 
not  seem,  by  more  recent  partial  calculations,  to  have  been  much  increased. 
—  Bright,  p.  205. 


SEC.  in.]  LABOR    OR   SERF  RENTS.  25 

though  denied  to  them  as  individuals,  was  attempted  to  be 
secured  to  them  as  a  body.  The  lands  on  each  estate, 
before  allotted  to  the  maintenance  of  serfs,  were  declared 
to  be  legally  consecrated  to  that  purpose  for  ever.  They 
were  divided  into  portions  of  from  35  to  40  English  acres 
each,  called  Sessions.1  The  quantity  of  labor  due  to  the 
proprietor  for  each  session,  was  fixed  at  104  days  per 
annum.2  The  proprietor  might  divide  these  sessions,  and 
grant  any  minute  portion  of  them  he  pleased  to  a  peasant ; 
but  he  could  stipulate  for  labor  only  in  proportion  to  the 
size  of  the  holding :  for  half  a  session  5  2  days,  for  a  quarter 
26  days,  and  so  proportionably  for  smaller  quantities. 

The  urbarium  of  Maria  Theresa  still  continues  the  magna 
charta  of  the  Hungarian  serfs.  But  the  authority  of  the 
owners  of  the  soil  over  the  persons  and  fortunes  of  their 
tenantry  has  been  very  imperfectly  abrogated :  the  neces- 
sities of  the  peasants  oblige  them  frequently  to  resort  to 
their  landlords  for  loans  of  food ;  they  become  laden  with 
heavy  debts  to  be  discharged  by  labor.  A  long  list  of 
customary  payments  of  flax,  poultry,  &c.  are  still  due,  which 
swell  this  account :  the  proprietors  retain  the  right  of 
employing  them  at  pleasure ;  paying  them,  in  lieu  of  sub- 

1  The  size  of  these  sessions  seems  to  have  differed  in  different  parts  of 
Hungary,  probably  in  proportion  to  the  fertility  of  the  soil. 

2  Besides  this  he  must  give  4  fowls,  12  eggs,  and  a  pfund  and  a  half  of 
butter ;  and  every  thirty  peasants  must  give  one  calf  yearly.     He  must  also 
pay  a  florin  for  his  house ;    must  cut  and  bring  home  a  klafter  of  wood ; 
must  spin  in  his  family  six  pfund  of  wool  or  hemp,  provided  by  the  land- 
lord :  and  among  four  peasants,  the  proprietor  claims  what  is  called  a  long 
journey,  that  is,  they  must  transport  20  centners,  each  100  French  pounds 
weight,  the  distance  of  two  day's  journey  out  and  home :  and  besides  all 
this,  they  must  pay  one-tenth  of  all  their  products  to  the  church,  and  one- 
ninth  to  the  lord. 


26  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

sistence,  about  one-third  of  the  actual  value  of  their  labor : * 
and  lastly,  the  administration  of  justice  is  still  in  the  hands 
of  the  nobles ; 2  and  one  of  the  first  sights  which  strike  a 
foreigner  on  approaching  their  mansions,  is  a  sort  of  low 
frame-work  of  posts,  to  which  a  serf  is  tied  when  it  is 
thought  proper  to  administer  the  discipline  of  the  whip,  for 
offences  which  do  not  seem  grave  enough  to  demand  a 
formal  trial. 

But  while  the  regulations  of  the  urbarium  have  secured 
thus  imperfectly  the  interests  and  liberty  of  the  peasant, 
they  are  extremely  embarrassing  to  the  proprietors.  A  part 
of  each  estate  is  irrevocably  devoted  to  the  maintenance  of 
the  laborers,  and  that  not  fixed  in  reference  to  its  extent 
and  wants,  but  decided  by  the  number  of  peasants  who  hap- 
pened to  be  on  it  at  the  time  of  the  edict.  On  some  estates, 
as  might  be  expected,  the  sessions  devoted  to  the  peasantry 
maintain  more  laborers  than  are  now  wanted.  The  labor 
rents,  to  that  extent,  are  worth  nothing  to  the  proprietor, 
and  unless  he  has  an  adjacent  estate  to  employ  the  serfs 
upon,  he  gets  nothing  but  the  flax,  poultry,  and  small  pro- 
duce payments  to  which  they  are  liable.  Some  estates  are 
wholly  occupied  by  useless  laborers;  on  others  there  are 
too  few ;  and  from  the  many  ties  which  still  connect  the  serf 
and  his  landlord,  an  interchange  between  different  proprie- 
tors is  rare,  while  from  the  unwillingness  of  the  peasants  to 
quit  their  hold,  such  as  it  is,  upon  the  soil,  free  labor  is  still 
more  so.  All  this  part  of  the  arrangement  is  evidently 
clumsy  and  inexpedient :  it  is  probable  it  originated  in  a 
compromise  between  the  wish  of  the  Empress  to  secure  the 
1  Bright,  p.  115.  2  storch,  Vol.  VI.  p.  308. 


SEC.  in.]  LABOR    OR   SERF  RENTS.  27 

peasants  some  interest  in  the  soil,  and  the  dislike  of  the 
nobles  to  establish  the  independence  of  their  serfs.  The 
diet  only  confirmed  the  urbarium  at  first  provisionally,  till 
something  better  could  be  devised.1  It  appears  from 
Schmalz,  that  similar  attempts  on  the  part  of  the  sovereign, 
to  secure  to  the  peasants,  as  a  body,  the  occupation  of  any 
land  once  cultivated  by  them,  were  common  throughout 
Germany,  and  originated  in  the  exemption  of  the  lands  cul- 
tivated by  the  nobles  from  direct  taxation  :  when  land  once 
got  into  the  hands  of  the  peasant,  it  was  available  to  the 
public  revenue  :  hence  many  laws  existed  in  different  states, 
which  forbade  its  resumption  by  the  proprietor,  without 
securing  a  definite  interest  in  it  to  any  individual  tenant. 
Such  laws  necessarily  created  complicated  and  anomalous 
interests  in  the  soil,  and  in  many  instances  left  in  no  hands 
any  authority  over  it,  which  could  be  a  sufficient  basis  for 
the  most  obvious  improvements.2 

Such  a  system,  however,  as  established  by  the  Urbarium, 
is  still  nearly  universal  throughout  Hungary,  and  there  is 
little  immediate  prospect  of  a  change. 

1  Storch,  Vol.  VI.  p.  308. 

2  Schmalz,  Econ.  Polit.   (French  translation,  Vol.  II.  p.  109).     Sans 
doute,  ce  sont  les  proprietaires  eux-mSmes,  qui  ont  donne  lieu  a  la  defense 
qui  leur  a  ete  faite  de  reprendre  leurs  fermes  des  mains  de  leur  paysans, 
parce  qu'ils  ont  cherche,  et  qu'ils  sont  parvenus,  a  se  faire  degrever  des 
imp6ts  que  les  paysans  paient  a  1'etat,  et  qu'en  consequence,  1'etat  a  interet 
a  s'opposer  a  ce  que  les  fermes  ou  metairies  ne  soient  pas  reunies  au  bien 
noble  du  seigneur  foncier,  et  affranchies  par  la  de  la  perception  de  1'impot. 


28  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

SECTION  IV. 
On  Labor  Rents  in  Poland. 

THE  Polish  serfs,  before  the  partition,  seem  to  have  been 
in  a  condition  very  similar  to  that  of  those  of  Hungary  be- 
fore the  edict  of  Maria  Theresa,  differing  little,  if  at  all,  from 
that  of  the  Russian  slave  ; J  but  from  the  dark  fate  of  Poland, 
the  system  of  labor  rents  now  presents  itself,  in  different 
parts  of  what  once  formed  that  kingdom,  under  a  considerable 
variety  of  modifications.  In  the  portions  seized  by  the  parti- 
tioning powers,  the  arrangements  between  landlord  and  tenant 
have  been  influenced  by  the  very  different  measures  adopted 
by  each  in  their  own  dominions  ;  while  in  what  may  now  be 
called  Poland  proper,  which  became  a  Russian  province  at 
a  later  date,  a  system  has  arisen  which  is  peculiar  to  it. 

When  in  1791  Stanislaus  Augustus,  and  the  States  were 
preparing  a  hopeless  resistance  to  the  threatened  attack  of 
Russia,  a  new  constitution,  adopted  too  late,  established  the 
complete  personal  freedom  of  the  peasantry.  This  boon 
has  never  been  recalled.  But  this  constitution  did  no  more 
for  them  :  it  secured  them  no  interest  in  the  land  they  occu- 
pied :  it  did  not  even  stipulate,  like  the  Hungarian  regulations, 
that  a  definite  portion  of  the  soil  should  be  unalienably  de- 
voted to  the  maintenance  of  their  class ;  but  it  left  them  to 
arrange  their  contracts  with  the  landowners  as  they  could. 
Finding  that  their  dependence  on  the  proprietors  for  subsis- 

1  Till  the  reign  of  Casimir  the  Great,  about  the  middle  of  the  i4th  cen- 
tury, the  Polish  nobles  exercised  over  their  peasants  the  uncontrouled  power 
of  life  and  death.  Three  days'  labour  was  their  usual  rent.  —  Burnett's 
•  View  of  present  State  of  Poland,  p.  102.  Appendix  III. 


SEC.  iv.]  LABOR   OR  SERF  RENTS.  29 

tence  remained  undiminished,  the  peasants  shewed  no  very 
grateful  sense  of  the  boon  bestowed  upon  them :  they  feared 
that  they  should  now  be  deprived  of  all  claim  upon  the  pro- 
prietors for  assistance,  when  calamity  or  infirmity  overtook 
them.  This  loss  they  thought  more  than  balanced  the  value 
of  an  increase,  to  them  at  first  merely  nominal,  in  their  polit- 
ical rights.  It  is  only  since  they  have  discovered  that  the 
connection  between  them  and  the  owners  of  the  estates  on 
which  they  reside  is  little  altered  in  practice,  and  that  their 
old  masters  very  generally  continue,  from  expediency  or  hu- 
manity, the  occasional  aid  they  formerly  lent  them,  that  they 
have  become  reconciled  to  their  new  character  of  freemen. 

But  although  bestowed  upon  a  people  so  far  sunk  as  to  be 
ignorant  of  its  value,  the  gift  of  freedom  has  already  devel- 
oped its  importance  among  them.  Since  the  date  of  the 
emancipation  of  the  Polish  peasantry,  another  alteration  in 
the  laws  has  taken  away  the  exclusive  right  of  the  nobles  to 
be  possessors  of  the  soil,  and  introduced  a  new  class  of 
proprietors.  These  have  been,  on  the  whole,  more  diligent 
in  pushing  cultivation  than  their  predecessors  on  their  estates, 
and  their  enterprises  have  already  created  an  increased  de- 
mand for  labor.  The  effects  of  this  have  shewn  themselves 
in  the  only  manner  in  which,  in  a  country  so  occupied  and 
so  cultivated,  they  could  shew  themselves,  in  increased  wages, 
obtained  by  increased  allotments  of  land  granted  on  the  re- 
serve of  less  labor,  and  with  every  encouragement  to  the 
peasantry  to  use  their  freedom,  and  migrate  to  the  estates 
on  which  their  labor  is  most  wanted.1 

1  See  Mr.  Jacob's  First  Report,  p.  27.  The  Appendix  to  this  Report  con- 
tains some  detailed  returns  from  the  managers  of  Polish  estates,  and  taken 


30  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

SECTION  V. 
On  Labor  Rents  in  Livonia  and  Esthonia. 

THE  state  of  the  peasantry  in  Livonia  is  remarkable, 
because  it  presents  the  results  of  a  deliberate  experiment 
on  the  best  means  of  gradually  converting  a  serf  tenantry 
into  a  race  of  freemen. 

Till  the  reign  of  Alexander  the  condition  of  the  Livonian 
peasantry  was  similar  to  that  of  the  Russian  slave.  The  ser- 
vile condition  of  the  cultivators  had  attracted  some  attention 
under  the  Empress  Catharine,  and  she  had  encouraged  the 
men  of  letters  in  her  dominions  to  communicate  their  ideas 
on  the  best  means  of  gradually  modifying  it.  M.  de  Boltin, 
M.  de  Kai'sarof,  and  M.  de  Stroi'novsky,  successively  wrote 
upon  the  subject.  The  work  of  the  last  written  in  Polish  was 
translated  into  Russian :  it  entered  into  a  detailed  account 

with  Mr.  Bright's  book,  presents  a  perfect  picture  of  the  practical  working 
of  the  system  of  labor  rents  in  Poland  and  in  Hungary.  For  a  graphic 
sketch  of  the  state  of  manners  and  morals  it  has  produced,  the  reader  may 
consult  Burnett.  In  Poland,  in  Austria,  and  other  parts  of  Germany,  the 
proprietor's  domain,  with  his  implements,  animals,  and  capital  of  all  sorts, 
are  sometimes  let  at  a  low  money  rent  to  a  tenant,  together  with  the  right 
of  exacting  and  using  the  labor  due  from  the  serfs.  The  superior  tenant 
is,  in  Poland,  very  often  a  younger  branch  of  the  family,  occasionally  a 
stranger.  This  substitution  of  another  person  as  cultivator  of  the  domain, 
leaves,  however,  the  labor  rents  of  the  serfs  (our  present  object)  precisely 
where  they  were.  It  is  considered  a  very  disastrous  mode  of  disposing  of 
the  domain  :  the  stock  and  capital  are  usually,  as  might  be  expected,  ruined 
at  the  expiration  of  the  lease ;  it  is  not  now  practised  extensively ;  though 
it  appears  from  Mr.  Jacob's  Second  Report,  to  be  now  spreading  in  the 
North-west  of  Germany.  It  may,  however,  possibly  prove  hereafter,  one 
stepping-stone  to  a  different  system ;  and  if  the  dilapidation  of  the  stock 
could  be  effectually  guarded  against,  it  most  probably  would  do  so. 


SEC.  v.]  LABOR    OR   SERF  RENTS.  31 

of  the  measures  proper  to  prepare  and  forward  what  was 
treated  as  a  great  and  useful  reform.  Nor  were  these 
notions  confined  to  literary  men,  or  to  individuals.  In  1805 
the  whole  body  of  proprietors  in  Esthonia  agreed  among 
themselves  on  some  preliminary  regulations  for  the  peas- 
antry on  their  estates,  which,  it  was  avowed,  were  meant  to 
pave  the  way  to  their  ultimate  emancipation.  These  regu- 
lations received  a  formal  sanction  from  the  Emperor.  The 
alterations  in  Livonia  began  a  year  earlier,  and  seem  to 
have  originated  in  minds  equally  alive  to  the  importance  of 
a  change,  and  to  the  practical  reasons  for  its  being  effected 
gradually.  Their  object  appears  to  have  been,  to  elevate 
the  serf  by  degrees,  and  while  that  elevation  was  in  progress, 
to  retain  considerable  control  over  him,  partly  for  his  own 
advantage,  partly  to  secure  the  interests  of  the  proprietors. 
The  personal  liberty  at  first  conceded  to  the  peasant  was 
much  less  complete  than  that  of  the  Hungarian  and  Pole, 
for  he  was  still  attached  to  the  glebe,  and  had  no  power  of 
chusing  his  employment  or  residence.  But  a  benefit  was 
bestowed  more  important  in  the  outset  than  freedom  itself, 
to  persons  so  wholly  dependant  on  the  soil  for  subsistence ; 
a  benefit  which  had  been  withheld  from  him  in  Hungary 
and  Poland  :  every  individual  peasant  was  invested  with  a 
secure  interest  in  the  allotment  of  land  which  he  cultivated. 
The  edict  of  the  Emperor  finally  legalizing  these  regu- 
lations appeared  in  1804.  The  Livonian  serf  was  declared 
the  hereditary  farmer  of  the  land  he  occupied.  The  rent 
was  fixed  in  labor,  to  be  performed  on  the  domain  of  the 
proprietor.  It  was  to  leave  the  peasant  master  of  at  least 
two- thirds  of  his  time.  If  this  labor  rent  should  at  any  time 


32  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

be  commuted  for  a  money  payment,  the  amount  of  that 
payment  was  limited  and  fixed,  and  it  was  never  to  be 
increased.  A  lease  was  to  be  granted  on  these  terms, 
irrevocable,  and  only  subject  to  forfeiture  in  case  the  rent 
should  be  two  years  in  arrear;  and  then  only  after  the 
decision  of  a  legal  tribunal,  which  was  to  direct  the  lease  to 
be  renewed  to  the  next  heir  of  the  defaulter.  Some  rights 
of  cutting  both  firewood  and  timber  for  building,  in  the 
proprietor's  forests,  were  also  reserved  to  the  serf.  He  was 
enabled  to  acquire  property  in  moveables  or  land,  and  to 
marry  at  his  own  discretion. 

With  all  these  privileges.,  however,  he  remains  attached  to 
the  soil.  He  can  no  longer  be  sold  away  from  it,  but  he  is 
sold  with  it,  or  rather  the  benefits  arising  from  his  compul- 
sory occupation  of  his  allotment  are  sold  with  the  rest  of 
the  estate  :  he  is  subject  to  a  correctional  discipline  of  fifteen 
lashes. 

On  the  whole,  these  regulations  do  credit  to  the  good 
feelings  and  good  sense  of  the  framers  of  them.  The 
emancipation  of  the  serf  is  incomplete ;  but  it  would  have 
been  evidently  rash  to  have  abandoned  at  once  all  control 
over  the  industry  of  so  rude  a  race  ;  on  whose  exertions  the 
subsistence  of  the  proprietors  themselves,  and  the  whole 
cultivation  of  the  country,  must  for  some  time  depend.1  The 
successful  results  to  be  looked  for  from  such  an  experiment 
could  not  be  expected  to  appear  at  once ;  but  it  is  unpleas- 
ant to  observe  the  little  effect  apparently  produced  in  fifteen 
years.  Von  Halen,  who  travelled  through  Livonia  in  1819, 

l  For  an  instance  of  the  bad  results  of  a  benevolent  but  ill-judged  attempt 
at  a  hasty  and  complete  emancipation,  see  Burnett,  page  106. 


SEC.  v.]  LABOR    OR  SERF  RENTS.  33 

observes,  "Along  the  high  road  through  Livonia,  are 
found  at  short  distances  filthy  public  houses,  called  in 
the  country  Rhartcharuas,  before  the  doors  of  which  are 
usually,  seen  a  multitude  of  wretched  carts  and  sledges 
belonging  to  the  peasants,  who  are  so  greatly  addicted  to 
brandy  and  strong  liquors,  that  they  spend  whole  hours  in 
those  places,  without  paying  the  least  regard  to  their  horses, 
which  they  leave  thus  exposed  to  the  inclemency  of  the 
weather,  and  which,  with  themselves,  belong  to  the  gentle- 
men or  noblemen  of  the  country.  Nothing  proves  so 
much  the  state  of  barbarism  in  which  these  men  have  sunk, 
as  the  manner  in  which  they  received  the  decree  issued 
about  this  time.  These  savages,  unwilling  to  depend  upon 
their  own  exertions  for  support,  made  all  the  resistance  in 
their  power  to  that  decree,  the  execution  of  which  was  at 
length  entrusted  to  an  armed  force." * 

The  Livonian  peasants,  therefore,  received  their  new  privi- 
leges yet  more  ungraciously  than  the  Poles,  though  accom- 
panied with  the  gift  of  property,  and  secure  means  of  sub- 
sistence if  they  chose  to  exert  themselves.  Subsequently 
their  discontent  appears  to  have  taken  a  different  turn. 
They  are  said  to  have  constituted  a  part  of  the  peasantry, 
against  whom  that  edict  of  the  Emperor  Nicholas  was 
directed,  which  accuses  the  serfs  of  wishing  to  throw  off 
all  rents  and  services  at  once. 

1  Narrative  of  Don  Juan  Von  Halen,  &c.  Vol.  II.  p.  38.  Don  Juan  was 
mistaken  as  to  the  date  of  the  decree,  which  had  been  issued  since  1804,  by 
the  Emperor  Alexander,  for  partly  emancipating  some  of  the  Livonian 
serfs. 


34  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

SECTION  VI. 
Of  Labor  Rents  in  Germany. 

WE  shall  understand  better  the  present  state  of  labor  rents 
in  Germany,  if  we  previously  recall  to  mind  the  downward 
progress  of  similar  systems  in  other  countries,  from  which 
they  have  disappeared  gradually ;  because  we  shall  then  see 
distinctly  the  successive  steps  of  that  slow  demolition,  the 
progress  of  which  Germany  now  in  its  different  parts  ex- 
hibits in  many  various  stages. 

We  may  take  England  for  such  a  previous  instance. 
Thirteen  hundred  years  have  elapsed  since  the  final  estab- 
lishment of  the  Saxons.  Eight  hundred  of  these  had  passed 
away  and  the  Normans  had  been  for  two  centuries  settled 
here,  and  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  body  of  cultivators 
was  still  precisely  in  the  situation  of  the  Russian  serf.1  Dur- 
ing the  next  three  hundred,  the  unlimited  labor  rents  paid 
by  the  villeins  for  the  lands  allotted  to  them  were  gradually 
commuted  for  definite  services,  still  payable  in  kind ;  and 
they  had  a  legal  right  to  the  hereditary  occupation  of  their 
copyholds.  Two  hundred  years  have  barely  elapsed  since 
the  change  to  this  extent  became  quite  universal,  or  since  the 
personal  bondage  of  the  villeins  ceased  to  exist  among  us. 
The  last  claim  of  villenage  recorded  in  our  courts  was  in  the 
1 5th  of  James  I.  1618.  Instances  probably  existed  some 
time  after  this.  The  ultimate  cessation  of  the  right  to  de- 
mand their  stipulated  services  in  kind  has  been  since  brought 
about,  silently  and  imperceptibly,  not  by  positive  law ;  for, 
i  Eden,  Vol.  I.  p.  7. 


SEC.  vi.]  LABOR   OR  SERF  RENTS.  35 

when  other  personal  services  were  abolished  at  the  restora- 
tion, those  of  copyholders  were  excepted  and  reserved.1 

Throughout  Germany  similar  changes  are  now  taking 
place,  on  the  land ;  they  are  perfected  perhaps  no  where, 
and  in  some  large  districts  they  exhibit  themselves  in  very 
backward  stages.  A  short  description  of  the  condition  of 
one  state  will  make  that  of  others  intelligible ;  allowance 
must  of  course  be  made  for  an  indefinite  variety  of  modifica- 
tions in  the  practice  and  phraseology  of  different  districts. 

The  domain  lands,  those  which  in  Hungary,  Poland  and 
many  German  states  are  still  cultivated  by  the  nobles  them- 
selves, are  generally  in  Hanover  let  for  a  money  rent  to  per- 
sons who  occupy  the  domain  as  a  farm,  and  have  the  benefit 
of  the  services  which  the  peasant  tenants  are  bound  to  per- 
form. Some  of  these  larger  tenants,  under  the  name  of 
Amtmen,  exercise  the  important  territorial  jurisdiction,  still 
invested  in  the  nobles,  and  kept  alive  and  distinct  even  on 
the  demesnal  possessions  of  the  crown.2  The  amtmen  are 
not  usually  practical  farmers  themselves,  but  lawyers  or 
officers  of  government,  the  only  classes  which  seem  to 
possess  capital  for  such  undertakings.  They  reside  some- 
times in  towns,  and  employ  stewards  or  bailiffs  to  look  after 
their  very  large  farms.3  These  stewards  are  the  best  prac- 
tical farmers  in  Germany,  are  usually  well  educated  (often 
in  the  agricultural  institutions)  ;  and  are  inferior  in  general 
and  professional  knowledge  to  no  set  of  cultivators  in  the 
world. 

1  See  I2th  Charles  II.  c.  24. 

2  Hodgskin,  Vol.  II.  p.  5.     "  The  Amtman  frequently  unites,"  &c. 
8  Hodgskin,  Vol.  II.  p.  90. 


36  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

It  would  be  well  for  the  strength  and  prosperity  of  Ger- 
many, if  its  soil  were  universally  under  such  management. 
But  by  far  the  larger  proportion,  it  has  been  loosely  said 
four  fifths,  is  occupied  by  a  class  of  men  called  collectively 
Bauers.  These,  under  another  name,  are  the  serfs,  who  in 
Poland,  Hungary,  and  Russia,  form  the  laboring  tenantry  of 
the  nobles.  When  the  laws  are  recollected,  (passed  as 
before  remarked  for  fiscal  purposes)  which  in  many  German 
states  forbade  the  cultivation  by  the  proprietor  of  any  land 
which  had  once  been  in  the  hands  of  a  bauer,  the  spread  of 
this  order  and  the  proportion  of  the  land  occupied  by  them 
will  not  appear  extraordinary.  In  some  parts  of  Hanover 
these  men  now  present  themselves  in  two  distinct  classes, 
with  a  variety  of  subdivisions.  They  are  called  Leibeigen- 
ers  and  Meyers.  The  leibeigeners  are  in  the  state  of  the 
English  villein,  when  his  labor  rent  had  ceased  to  be  arbi- 
trary, but  was  still  paid  in  kind,  after  his  hereditary  claim 
to  his  allotment  had  been  recognized.  The  leibeigener  pays 
a  labor  rent,  in  kind,  and  cultivates  the  lands  of  the  land- 
lord, for  a  certain  number  of  days  in  the  year ;  brings  home 
the  lord's  wood,  performs  other  service  when  called  upon, 
and  is  subjected  to  some  most  burthensome  and  vexatious 
restrictions  as  to  the  mode  of  cropping  his  land,  which  must 
be  so  arranged  as  to  leave  one  third  always  in  fallow,  for  the 
proprietor's  flocks  to  range  over.  But  still  the  conditions 
on  which  he  holds  the  land  are  fixed  ;  and  it  descends  to  his 
children.  He  is  much  in  the  position  in  which  the  Livonian 
proprietors  have  lately  placed  their  serf  tenants,  except  that 
he  is  not  tied  to  the  soil. 

The  meyer  tenant  is  a  bauer  whose  labor  rents  have  been 


SEC.  vi.]  LABOR  OR  SERF  RENTS.  37 

commuted  for  money  or  a  corn  rent,  and  in  some  cases  for  a 
definite  portion  of  the  crops  :  though  he  is  still  liable  to 
some  trifling  services.  The  proprietor  cannot  raise  the  rent, 
nor  can  he  refuse  to  renew  the  lease,  unless  the  heir  be  an 
idiot,  or  the  rent  in  arrear :  but  as  this  tenure  in  many 
instances  is  modern,  the  rent  often  amounts  to  nearly  the 
full  value  of  the  land.  This  tenure  is  gradually  displacing 
that  of  the  leibeigeners,  and  the  tenant  under  it  is  much  in 
the  position  of  the  English  copyholder,  when  he  had  ceased 
to  perform  services  in  kind,  and  before  his  quit  rents  had 
become  a  mere  nominal  payment.  The  meyer  pays  a  fine 
on  alienation. 

In  some  cases  the  whole  of  an  estate  is  occupied  by 
meyers  and  leibeigeners,  and  the  proprietor  has  no  domain 
land  at  all. 

The  bauers  throughout  Germany  are  nearly  all  free: 
chained  by  many  ties  to  the  soil,  they  are  no  longer  the 
property  of  its  proprietors,  or  legally  confined  to  the  spot 
they  cultivate.  But  they  have  gained  this  freedom,  not,  as  in 
England,  by  the  gradual  wearing  out  of  their  chains,  but  by 
the  determined  exertion  of  their  sovereigns.  A  woman, 
Sophia  Magdalena  of  Denmark,  gave,  in  1761,  one  of  the 
earliest  examples  of  this  spirit.  Between  1770  and  1790,  it 
was  followed  by  the  Margrave  of  Baden  and  other  minor 
princes.  In  1781,  Joseph  II.  abolished  slavery  in  the 
German  dominions  of  Austria.  Since  1810  it  has  ceased  in 
Prussia,  and  very  lately  in  Mecklenburg.1 

The  higher  classes  have  partaken  largely  for  many  gener- 
ations of  the  general  civilization  of  Europe.  To  their  lothing 

1  Schmalz,  Vol.  I.  p.  104. 


38  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

at  the  degraded  condition  of  their  inferiors,  the  latter  owe 
an  emancipation  from  personal  thraldom,  of  which  in  some 
cases  they  hardly  yet  feel  the  full  value.  At  the  moment  in 
which  they  became  free  men  they  became  in  some  instances 
small  proprietors,  subject  to  a  perpetual  rent  charge.  To 
their  forcible  investment  with  this  character  in  Prussia,  we 
shall  hereafter  have  occasion  to  advert. 


SECTION  VII. 

HAVING  now  traced  the  system  of  labor  rents  from  Russia 
to  the  Rhine,1  we  may  quit  it.  Fragments  of  it  indeed  still 
subsist  to  the  westward  of  the  Rhine;  the  relics  for  the 
most  part  of  a  storm  and  inundation,  which  have  passed 
over  and  away ;  but  they  are  thinly  scattered,  and  cease  to 
give  any  peculiar  form  and  complexion  to  the  relations 
between  the  different  orders  of  society. 

Of  these  fragments  however,  one  of  the  most  interesting 
to  us,  subsists,  under  a  very  primitive  form,  in  a  corner  of 
our  own  island.  In  the  northern  Highlands,  the  chief 
seems  never  to  have  been  able  to  introduce  either  produce 
or  money  rents,  exclusively,  that  is,  to  trust  his  people  with 
the  task  of  producing  subsistence  for  himself  and  his  house- 
holds. Each  chief  therefore  kept  in  his  hands  a  consider- 
able domain ;  the  remainder  of  his  country  was  parcelled 
out  among  the  tacksmen  or  inferior  gentry  of  the  clan,  and 
these  again  divided  it  among  a  race  of  tenants,  who  paid  a 
large  proportion  of  the  stipulated  rent  in  labor,  poultry,  eggs, 

1  On  the  very  poor  soils  in  the  German  provinces  west  of  the  Rhine, 
labor  rents  still,  I  am  told,  prevail. 


SEC.  vii.]  LABOR    OR   SERF  RENTS.  39 

and  articles  of  domestic  produce,  exactly  similar  to  those 
which  form  a  part  of  the  dues  of  the  Hungarian  peasant. 
In  their  rent  rolls,  servitude  is  included  as  a  prominent  and 
important  article.  The  interest  of  the  proprietors  has  led 
them,  since  1745,  to  substitute  for  this  race  of  tenantry,  ex- 
tensive sheep  farmers.  The  cultivation  of  the  old  tenantry 
appears  to  have  been  slothful,  ignorant,  and  inefficient,  and 
their  situation  extremely  miserable  :  but  still  these  northern 
serfs,  whose  spirit  had  never  been  subdued  by  personal  bond- 
age, clung  fondly  to  their  homes,  and  have  been  removed,  we 
know,  only  by  a  difficult  and  painful  process. 

The  agent  of  the  Marquis  of  Stafford  has  published  an 
account  of  the  changes  now  taking  place  in  Sutherland, 
which  contains  a  very  interesting  picture  of  the  habits,  char- 
acter, and  circumstances  this  system  had  produced  there.1 
Its  last  relics  are  however  fast  wearing  away,  and  when  a 
few  leases  to  existing  tacksmen  have  expired,  labor  rents  will 
finally  disappear  from  Great  Britain. 

It  has  been  common  to  speak  of  the  services  due  from 
serfs  throughout  Europe  as  feudal  services,  and  of  the  rela- 
tion between  them  and  the  proprietors  as  part  of  the  feudal 
system.  This  is  by  no  means  correct.  The  feudal  ties  orig- 
inated in  a  plan  of  military  defence,  made  necessary  by  the 
circumstances,  and  congenial  to  the  habits,  of  the  barbarians 
who  had  quartered  themselves  in  Western  Europe.  The 

1  Those  who  wish  thoroughly  to  understand  the  spirit  and  effects  of  the 
old  Highland  modes  of  dividing  and  cultivating  the  soil,  and  the  conse- 
quences of  the  violent  change  effected  since  1745,  may  consult  the  work  of 
Lord  Selkirk,  published  in  1805,  entitled  Observations  on  the  present  state 
of  the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  with  a  view  of  the  causes  and  probable  conse- 
quences of  Emigration  ;  it  will  be  found  able,  interesting,  and  instructive. 


40  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

granter  of  a  feud  deliberately  divested  himself  on  certain 
specified  conditions,  of  all  right  to  the  possession  of  the  land 
which  he  abandoned  to  his  vassal.  The  object  in  labor  rents 
was  produce  alone  :  they  arose  in  Europe  as  in  the  Society 
Islands,  from  a  mode  of  cultivation  which  the  rudeness  of 
the  people  made  necessary,  if  any  rent  at  all  was  to  be 
exacted  from  them :  and  the  proprietor  never  deliberately 
divested  himself  of  the  right  of  resuming,  at  his  pleasure,  the 
possession  of  the  allotments  occupied  by  his  serfs ;  though 
usage  and  prescription  permitted,  in  the  course  of  ages,  a 
claim  to  hereditary  occupation  on  their  part  to  establish  it- 
self. The  feudal  system,  with  its  scheme  of  military  service, 
and  nicely  graduated  scale  of  fealty  and  limited  obedience, 
never  made  much  way  to  the  east  of  Prussia.  But  it  is  pre- 
cisely in  those  eastern  parts  of  Europe,  that  labor  rents  have 
prevailed  the  most  widely  and  the  longest.  It  would  not 
indeed  be  difficult  to  shew,  were  this  the  place  for  it,  that 
the  multiplication  of  the  feudal  vassals  who  were  freemen  by 
virtue  of  their  tenure  and  their  swords,  prevented  labor  rents 
from  ever  prevailing  so  exclusively  over  the  surface  of  west- 
ern Europe,  as  they  have  always  prevailed,  and  do  now  pre- 
vail, over  its  eastern  division. 


SECTION  VIII. 

Summary  of  Serf  Rents. 

WE  have  observed  serf  rents,  in  the  different  countries 
in  which  they  still  prevail,  and  as  they  have  been  variously 
affected  by  time  and  circumstances.  It  will  be  convenient, 


SEC.  viii.]  LABOR   OR  SERF  RENTS.  41 

perhaps,  to  recall  in  a  short  summary  the  most  marked 
features  common  to  the  system  in  all  its  modifications,  and 
to  collect  into  one  view  the  general  principles  suggested  by 
the  facts  to  which  we  have  referred.  This  plan  we  shall 
pursue  with  the  other  divisions  of  peasant  rents,  as  we 
successively  arrive  at  them. 

Dependence  of  Wages  on  Rents. 

The  most  marked  feature  of  a  system  of  serf  rents,  is 
one  which  it  has  in  common  with  all  the  forms  of  peasant 
rents ;  and  that  is,  the  strict  connexion  it  creates  between 
the  wages  of  labor  and  rents.  The  serfs  constitute  the 
great  body  of  laborers  in  eastern  Europe.  The  real  wages 
of  the  serf,  the  wealth  he  annually  consumes,  depend  on 
what  he  is  able  to  extract  from  his  allotment  of  land ;  and 
this  again  depends,  partly  on  its  extent  and  fertility,  partly 
on  the  culture  he  is  able  to  bestow  upon  it.  But  the  labor 
he  can  exert  for  his  own  purposes  is  limited  by  that  which 
he  yields  as  a  rent  to  his  landlord.  This  varies  of  course  in 
different  countries,  and  occasionally  from  time  to  time  in 
the  same  country,  sometimes  directly  and  avowedly,  some- 
times indirectly  and  almost  insensibly.  Thus  in  Hungary, 
the  number  of  days'  labor  nominally  due  from  the  peasants 
for  each  session  of  land,  is  doubled  in  practice  by  the  com- 
mutation into  labor  of  many  other  dues,  all  trifling,  and 
some  very  indefinite.  In  most  places  too,  the  authority  of 
the  landlord  enables  him,  at  very  inadequate  prices,  to 
command,  in  addition  to  the  labor  formally  due  to  him, 
as  much  of  the  peasant's  time  and  exertions  as  he  pleases. 
Where  claims  upon  his  time  are  thus  multiplied,  the  ground 


42  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

of  the  serf  must  be  imperfectly  tilled,  and  after  a  certain 
point,  with  each  advance  in  the  exactions  of  the  land- 
lord, the  produce  of  the  peasant's  allotment,  his  real  wages, 
must  become  less. 

To  understand,  then,  the  condition  of  the  serf  laborers 
and  the  causes  which  determine  the  actual  amount  of  their 
wages,  a  detailed  account  is  necessary  of  their  contract 
with  the  proprietors,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  that  con- 
tract is  practically  interpreted  and  enforced.  This  active 
influence  of  the  nature  and  amount  of  the  rents  they  pay  on 
the  revenues  and  condition  of  the  labouring  class,  is  one  of 
the  most  important  effects  of  the  existence  of  a  system  of 
labor  rents.  We  shall  find  however  the  same  effect,  pro- 
duced in  a  somewhat  different  manner,  characterizing 
peasant  rents  in  all  their  forms. 

Inefficiency  of  Agricultural  Labor. 

The  next  prominent  feature  of  a  system  of  labor  or  serf 
rents,  is  peculiar  to  that  form  of  tenancy :  it  is,  its  singular 
effect  in  degrading  the  industrious  habits  of  the  laborers, 
and  making  them  inefficient  instruments  of  cultivation. 

The  peasant  who  depends  for  his  food  upon  his  labor  in 
his  own  allotment  of  ground,  and  is  yet  liable  to  be  called 
away  at  the  discretion  and  convenience  of  another  person 
to  work  upon  other  lands,  in  the  produce  of  which  he  is 
not  to  share,  is  naturally  a  reluctant  laborer.  When  long 
prescription  has  engendered  a  feeling,  that  he  is  a  co- 
proprietor,  at  least,  in  the  spot  of  ground  which  he  occupies, 
then  this  reluctance  to  be  called  from  the  care  of  it  to 
perform  his  task  of  forced  labor  elsewhere,  is  heightened 


SEC.  viii.]  LABOR   OR   SERF  RENTS.  43 

by  a  vague  sense  of  oppression,  and  becomes  more  dogged 
and  sullen.  From  such  men  who  have  no  motive  for 
exertion,  but  the  fear  of  the  lash,  strenuous  labor  is  not  to 
be  expected.  Accordingly,  the  exceeding  worthlessness  of 
serf  labor  is  beginning  to  be  thoroughly  understood  in  all 
those  parts  of  Europe  in  which  it  prevails. 

The  Russians,  or  rather  those  German  writers  who  have 
observed  the  manners  and  habits  of  Russia,  state  some 
strong  facts  on  this  point.  Two  Middlesex  mowers,  they 
say,  will  mow  in  a  day  as  much  grass  as  six  Russian  serfs, 
and  in  spite  of  the  dearness  of  provisions  in  England,  and 
their  cheapness  in  Russia,  the  mowing  a  quantity  of  hay 
which  would  cost  an  English  farmer  half  a  copeck,  will 
cost  a  Russian  proprietor  three  or  four  copecks.1  The 
Prussian  counsellor  of  state  Jacob  is  considered  to  have 
proved,  that  in  Russia,  where  everything  is  cheap,  the 
labor  of  a  serf  is  doubly  as  expensive  as  that  of  a  laborer 
in  England.2  Mr.  Schmalz  gives  a  startling  account  of  the 
unproductiveness  of  serf  labor  in  Prussia,  from  his  own 
knowledge  and  observation.3  In  Austria,  it  is  distinctly 
stated,  that  the  labor  of  a  serf  is  equal  to  only  one  third  of 
that  of  a  free  hired  laborer.  This  calculation,  made  in  an 
able  work  on  Agriculture  (with  some  extracts  from  which 
I  have  been  favored),  is  applied  to  the  practical  pur- 
pose of  deciding  on  the  number  of  laborers  necessary  to 
cultivate  an  estate  of  a  given  magnitude.  So  palpable 
indeed  are  the  ill  effects  of  labor  rents  on  the  industry  of 
the  agricultural  population,  that  in  Austria  itself,  where 

1  Schmalz,  Economic  Polit.    French  translation,  Vol.  I.  p.  66. 
a  Schmalz,  Vol.  II.  p.  103.  8  Vol.  II.  p.  107. 


<F4  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n 

proposals  for  changes  of  any  kind  do  not  readily  make 
their  way,  schemes  and  plans  for  the  commutation  of  labor 
rents  are  as  popular  as  in  the  more  stirring  German  prov- 
inces of  the  north. 

Labor  rents  have  another  bad  effect  on  the  national 
industry:  the  indolence  and  carelessness  of  the  serfs  are 
apt  to  corrupt  the  free  laborers  who  may  come  in  contact 
with  them.  "  The  existence  of  forced  labor,"  says  Schmalz, 
who  lived  in  the  midst  of  it,  "  habituates  men  to  indolence  ; 
"  every  where  the  work  done  by  forced  labor  is  ill  done  : 
"  wherever  it  prevails,  day  laborers  and  even  domestic  ser- 
"vants  perform  their  work  ill."  A  striking  example  of  the 
mischievous  influence  of  the  habits  formed  by  these  labor 
rents,  occurred  lately  in  the  north  of  Germany.  A  new 
road  is  at  this  time  making,  which  is  to  connect  Hamburgh 
and  the  Elbe,  with  Berlin ;  it  passes  over  the  sterile  sands 
of  which  so  much  of  the  north  of  Germany  consists,  and 
the  materials  for  it  are  supplied  by  those  isolated  blocks 
of  granite,  of  which  the  presence  on  the  surface  of  those 
sands  forms  a  notorious  geological  puzzle.  These  blocks, 
transported  to  the  line  of  road,  are  broken  to  the  proper 
size  by  workmen,  some  of  whom  are  Prussian  free  laborers, 
others  leibeigeners  of  the  Mecklenburg  territory,  through  a 
part  of  which  the  road  passes.  They  are  paid  a  stipulated 
sum  for  breaking  a  certain  quantity,  and  all  are  paid  alike. 
Yet  the  leibeigeners  could  not  at  first  be  prevailed  upon  to 
break  more  than  one  third  of  the  quantity  which  formed  the 
ordinary  task  of  the  Prussians.  The  men  were  mixed,  in 
the  hope  that  the  example  and  the  gains  of  the  more  indus- 
trious, would  animate  the  sluggish.  A  contrary  effect  fol- 


SEC.  viii.]  LABOR    OR   SERF  RENTS.  45 

lowed ;  the  leibeigeners  did  not  improve,  but  the  exertions 
of  the  other  laborers  sensibly  slackened,  and  at  the  time 
my  informant  (the  English  engineer  who  superintended 
the  road)  was  speaking  to  me,  the  men  were  again  at  work 
in  separate  gangs,  carefully  kept  asunder. 

In  Prussia,  before  1811,  two  thirds  of  the  whole  popula- 
tion consisted  of  leibeigeners,  or  of  an  enslaved  serf  tenantry, 
in  a  yet  more  backward  state.1  In  other  parts  of  eastern 
and  northern  Europe,  similar  classes  compose  a  yet  larger 
proportion  of  the  people.  Upon  their  hands,  either  as 
principals,  or  as  the  most  essential  instruments,  rests  the 
task  of  making  the  soil  productive,  the  only  species  of 
industry  yet  carried  on  to  any  great  extent.  The  ineffi- 
ciency of  this  large  portion  of  the  productive  laborers  of  the 
community,  their  dislike  to  steady  exertions  when  working 
for  others,  their  want  of  skill,  means,  and  energy,  when 
employed  on  their  own  allotments,  must  have  a  disastrous 
influence  on  the  annual  produce  of  the  land  and  labor  of 
their  territory,  and  tend  to  keep  their  country  in  a  state 
of  comparative  poverty  and  political  feebleness ;  which 
great  extent,  and  the  cheapness  of  human  labor  and  life 
for  military  purposes,  have  only  partially  balanced. 

Inefficient  Superintendence  of  Labor. 

The  ne'xt  peculiarity  of  a  system  of  labor  rents  very 
considerably  aggravates  the  bad  effects  of  that  inefficiency, 
which  seems  the  inseparable  characteristic  of  the  labor  of 
serfs.  This  peculiarity  is  the  lax  superintendence,  the 
imperfect  assistance  of  the  landed  proprietors ;  who  are 

1  Jacob's  Germany,  p.  235. 


46  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

necessarily,  in  their  character  of  cultivators  of  their  own 
domains,  the  only  guides  and  directors  of  the  industry  of 
the  agricultural  population. 

The  Russian,  Polish,  Hungarian,  or  German  nobles,  ele- 
vated, when  not  corrupted,  by  the  privileges  and  habits  of 
their  order,  have  seldom  inclination  to  bestow  attention  on 
the  detail  of  the  labors  of  husbandry ;  and  perhaps  yet  more 
seldom  the  means  of  saving  capital  and  using  it.1  Seed 
produced  from  the  estate  is  sown  by  the  labor  of  the 
tenants,  who  in  due  time  gather  the  harvest  into  the  barns 
of  the  proprietor.  This  process  is  repeated  in  a  slovenly 
manner,  till  the  land  is  exceedingly  impoverished,2  and  is 
continued  while  there  is  a  prospect  of  the  smallest  gain. 
These  operations  are  contrived  and  directed  as  clumsily 
and  negligently  as  they  are  executed. 

There  are  exceptions  no  doubt;  a  few  individual  pro- 
prietors devote  themselves  with  zeal  to  the  improvement  of 
agriculture.  This  may  always  be  expected.  When  a  similar 
race  of  tenantry  occupied  England,  Robert  de  Rulos,  the 
chamberlain  of  the  Conqueror,  distinguished  himself  by 
improvements  which  he  introduced  upon  his  estates,  of 
sufficient  consequence  to  induce  the  historians  of  the  age 
to  hand  down  his  name  to  posterity,  as  a  public  benefactor. 
On  looking  now  at  the  different  countries  of  eastern  Europe, 
we  shall  find  a  sprinkling  of  men  who  are  the  Roberts  de 

1  The  Russian  government,  hoping  to  remedy  this  last  defect,  established 
a  bank  for  the  express  purpose  of  advancing  loans  to  the  nobles  to  be 
employed  in  improving  the  cultivation  of  their  estates.     The  experiment 
did  not  succeed.    The  nobles  were  observed  to  grow  suddenly  more  ex- 
pensive, but  their  estates  remained  as  they  were.    Storch,  Vol.  IV.  p.  288. 

2  Jacob's  First  Report. 


SEC.  VIIL]  LABOR    OR  SERF  RENTS.  47 

Rulo  of  their  day  \  but  it  would  be  hopeless  and  irrational 
to  expect,  that  a  race  of  noble  proprietors,  fenced  round 
with  privileges  and  dignity,  and  attracted  to  military  and 
political  pursuits  by  the  advantages  and  habits  of  their 
station,  should  ever  become  attentive  cultivators  as  a  body. 
There  remains  for  them  the  expedient  of  educating  and 
employing  able  and  scientific  managers,  and  on  a  few  of  the 
large  estates,  belonging  to  rich  proprietors,  this  is  very  care- 
fully and  well  done.  But  the  training  and  employing  such 
a  class  of  men,  is  first  very  expensive,  and  is  then  nearly 
useless  unless  they  can  be  supplied  freely  with  capital  as 
the  means  of  carrying  into  effect  the  improved  systems 
which  they  have  been  taught.  These  circumstances  confine 
to  narrow  limits  the  number  of  estates  conducted  by  such 
a  description  of  managers ;  and  taking  large  districts  only 
into  account,  the  paucity  of  mind  and  skill,  steadily  applied 
to  agriculture,  and  the  poor  use  which  is  made  of  the  re- 
luctant labor  of  the  peasantry,  furnish  another  striking 
feature  of  the  system  of  cultivation  by  a  serf  tenantry. 

Small  numbers  of  independent  Classes. 

The  two  circumstances  just  pointed  out,  the  indolence  of 
the  laborers,  and  the  inefficiency  of  the  directors  of  labor, 
are  causes  which  make  the  agricultural  produce  of  countries 
cultivated  by  serfs,  extremely  small  when  compared  with 
their  extent.  It  follows  that,  even  where  the  whole  of  the 
raw  produce  raised  is  consumed  at  home  (which  from  other 
causes  it  rarely  is),  still,  after  the  peasantry  have  been  fed, 
the  numbers  of  the  non-agricultural  classes  maintained,  are 
small. 


48  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

We  have  seen  that  in  Prussia  two  thirds  of  the  whole 
population  were  bauers :  in  other  parts  of  the  east  of 
Europe,  the  numbers  of  the  classes  not  connected  with 
agriculture  are  yet  smaller,  compared  with  the  extent  of 
their  territory,  or  the  gross  amount  of  their  population. 
In  Hungary,  we  have  observed  that  there  were  but  thirty 
thousand  artizans  when  there  were  eight  millions  of  in- 
habitants, and  no  where  does  the  number  of  the  class 
which  is  unconnected  with  the  soil  reach  the  size  at  which 
it  may  be  observed  in  countries  cultivated  under  better 
systems. 

Authority  of  Landlords  over  Tenants. 

Another  marked  and  important  effect  of  a  system  of  labor 
rents,  is  the  constant  coercion  which  is  necessary  to  make 
it  to  any  extent  efficient,  and  the  arbitrary  authority  this 
circumstance  throws  into  the  hands  of  the  landlords,  under 
any  possible  modifications  of  the  tenure.  We  have  seen 
that  at  one  stage  of  their  progress  throughout  Europe,  the 
serfs  have  almost  universally  been  at  one  time  actual  slaves. 
This  extreme  state  of  things  has  indeed  changed,  except  in 
Russia  alone.  But  the  authority  of  the  proprietors  over  the 
serfs,  exercised  through  the  medium  of  judicial  tribunals,  in 
which  the  nobles  are  the  judges,  has  not  ceased  to  be  ex- 
tremely arbitrary.  While  the  system  of  labor  rents  exists  to 
any  practical  purpose,  this  can  hardly  be  otherwise.  While 
large  domains  are  cultivated  by  agricultural  labor,  due  from 
a  numerous  tenantry,  the  necessary  work  must  be  delayed, 
embarrassed,  and  frequently  altogether  suspended,  if  a  law- 
suit before  independent  tribunals  were  the  only  mode  of 


SEC.  viii.]  LABOR   OR  SERF  RENTS.  49 

settling  a  dispute  with  a  reluctant  or  refractory  laborer.1 
Hence  the  judicial  power  has  rarely,  if  ever,  been  abandoned 
by  the  proprietors,  even  where  the  personal  freedom  of  the 
serf  has  been  recognized.  The  Hungarian  noble  still  exer- 
cises criminal  and  civil  jurisdiction  by  his  officers.  Even  in 
Germany,  where  the  authority  of  the  general  government 
has  made  more  way,  and  where  the  system  of  labor  rents 
is  in  a  more  advanced  stage  of  decomposition,  the  whole 
country  till  very  recently  was  covered  by  domainial  tribunals, 
which  were  at  one  time  divided  and  multiplied  to  such 
excess,  that  the  jurisdiction  of  some  of  them  is  said  to  have 
comprehended  only  a  dwelling-house,  and  as  much  ground 
as  is  found  within  the  line  marked  by  the  water-drip  from 
the  eaves.2  On  the  estates  of  the  sovereign  and  of  large 
proprietors,  this  authority  is  usually  administered  by  the 
Amtmen,  who,  either  as  tenants  or  stewards,  have  charge  of 
the  domain. 

In  the  west  of  Europe,  as  in  France  for  instance,  the  pride 
of  the  nobility,  and  the  connivance  or  indolence  of  the  gov- 
ernment, kept  these  tribunals  in  existence,  long  after  the 
altered  relations  of  the  cultivators  and  their  landlords  had 


1  See  Jacob's  Germany,  p.  342,  for  an  instance  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  rights  of  the  proprietors  are  frustrated  when  they  are  by  chance  driven 
to  the  tribunals.    The  Saxon  courts  of  justice  seem  to  be  actuated,  when 
they  have  an  opportunity  to  interfere  between  proprietor  and  tenant,  by  the 
same  bias  towards  freedom  which  did  honor  to  those  of  England,  and  seem 
too  to  approach  their  object  with  much  of  the  astuteness  which  suggested 
some  of  our  own  legal  proceedings. 

2  Hodgskin,  Vol.  II.  p.  6.     In  Hanover,  some  of  these  minute  patrimo- 
nial courts  have  been  abolished ;  but  there  are  still,  or  were,  so  late  as  1819, 
no  less  than  160  local  tribunals  on  the  royal  domain,  besides  all  those 
belonging  to  individual  proprietors  and  to  towns. 


50  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

made  them  useless  :  but  in  the  east  of  Europe  it  would  really 
be  difficult  to  dispense  with  them  :  and  where  the  sovereigns 
are  alive  to  the  inconvenience  of  these  petty  tribunals  (which 
they  do  not  seem  always  to  be),  they  will  hardly  venture  on 
depriving  the  proprietors  of  all  summary  authority  over  their 
tenantry,  while  any  considerable  portion  of  their  territory  is 
made  productive  by  the  use  of  labor  rents  alone.  So  natu- 
rally does  the  usefulness  of  this  jurisdiction  of  the  proprie- 
tors accompany  the  existence  of  labor  rents,  that  I  perceive 
by  the  public  papers,  in  some  parts  of  the  Danish  domin- 
ions, where  a  general  commutation  of  these  rents  has  taken 
place,  the  proprietors  have  made  a  voluntary  offer  to  the 
crown  of  abandoning  their  judicial  authority  altogether. 

The  serf,  however,  who  is  liable  to  have  claims  upon  his 
time  and  labor  interpreted,  and  summarily  enforced,  by  the 
person  who  makes  those  claims,  can  never  be  more  than  half 
a  freeman,  even  when  he  has  ceased  to  be  wholly  a  slave. 

The  Power  and  Influence  of  the  Aristocracy. 

The  subjection  of  the  serfs  to  the  proprietors,  under  all 
the  modifications  of  their  tenure,  throws  inevitably  great 
power  and  influence  into  the  hands  of  the  landed  body. 
The  landholders  themselves  may  enjoy  very  different  meas- 
ures of  political  freedom.  We  may  observe  them,  wholly 
unawed  by  the  crown,  exercising  the  wild  licence  of  the 
Polish  nobility ;  or,  when  united  with  other  states  under  a 
powerful  sovereign,  as  in  the  case  of  Hungary,  still  able  to 
maintain  the  privileges  of  their  order  with  a  degree  of  inde- 
pendence which  the  government  feels  it  would  be  impolitic 
to  provoke,  even  though  it  were  possible  to  overwhelm  it : 


SEC.  viii.]  LABOR    OR   SERF  RENTS.  51 

or  we  may  see  them,  as  in  Russia,  so  circumstanced,  that 
legal  bounds  to  the  power  of  the  sovereign  are  unthought 
of.  Still  in  all  these  different  cases  the  power  of  the  aristoc- 
racy over  the  mass  of  the  people  creates  a  moral  influence, 
which  must  be  felt  by  the  general  government,  and,  if  not 
obeyed,  must  to  some  extent  be  attended  to.  From  this 
influence,  even  the  absolute  government  of  the  Russian 
Emperor  receives  an  unacknowledged  but  powerful  check, 
sufficient  to  distinguish  it  from  an  Asiatic  despotism,  to 
ensure  a  wholesome  dominion  to  forms  and  usages,  and  to 
prescribe  decency  and  limits  even  to  caprice  and  injustice. 
Amidst  the  mischiefs  incident  to  this  mode  of  occupying  the 
soil,  this  political  effect  must  be  distinguished  as  being,  when 
reacting  on  a  strong  general  government,  the  source  of 
benefits  to  the  people  which  are  important  though  imperfect. 
It  has  for  many  centuries  staved  off  unlimited  despotism 
from  a  large  portion  of  Europe. 

As  the  general  government  becomes  feeble,  the  influence 
of  such  an  aristocracy  may  be  expected  of  course  to  shew 
itself  more  active  and  dominant ;  and  then  there  are  doubt- 
less instances  of  its  assuming  the  form  of  a  national  evil. 

Want  of  Popular  Influence   in   the   Political   Constitution   of  such 
Countries. 

The  small  numbers  and  small  importance  of  the  classes 
who  are  independent  of  the  soil,  the  absence  on  the  soil 
itself  of  any  class  like  our  farmers,  the  abject  dependence  of 
the  serfs  on  the  proprietors,  make  any  real  influence  of  a 
third  estate  in  the  constitution  of  countries  in  which  labor 
rents  prevail  utterly  nugatory.  The  government  of  such 


52  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

countries  must  be  shared  by  the  sovereign  and  the  aris- 
tocracy :  it  may  be  shared  very  unequally ;  they  may  con- 
trol each  other  in  different  degrees ;  but  on  their  joint 
authority  alone  the  public  power  must  rest.  Tracing  back 
the  history  of  our  own  country  we  observe,  that  while  a 
similar  system  prevailed  in  England,  the  absence  of  any 
efficient  third  estate,  made  our  government  a  rude  mixture 
of  monarchy  and  a  landed  aristocracy,  struggling  fiercely, 
and  each  threatening  to  extinguish  the  other  in  its  turn.  It 
is  the  very  same  want  of  a  third  estate,  which  makes  it  so 
difficult  to  establish  in  many  continental  nations,  those  imi- 
tations of  the  actual  English  Constitution,  which  we  have 
seen  of  late  frequently  attempted.  Before  the  people  of 
eastern  Europe  can  have  governments,  of  which  the  springs 
and  weights  really  resemble  those  of  the  English,  a  space  of 
time  must  elapse  sufficient  to  introduce  very  different  ingre- 
dients into  their  social  elements.  Till  then,  we  may  expect 
to  see  yet  more  well-meant  attempts  of  sovereigns  and 
nobles  end  in  disappointment.  And  when  society  has  under- 
gone the  necessary  change,  serf  rents,  we  may  venture  to 
predict,  will  have  been  superseded,  and  will  have  ceased  to 
exist :  except  perhaps  in  some  obsolete  shapes  and  names, 
from  which,  as  in  the  case  of  the  copyholds  of  England,  all 
life  and  power  have  departed. 

What  determines  the  Amount  of  Labor  Rents. 

The  value  of  serf  or  labor  rents,  the  advantages  which 
the  proprietor  derives  from  the  lands  allotted  to  the  serfs, 
depend  partly  upon  the  quantity  of  labor  exacted,  and  partly 
upon  the  skill  used  in  applying  it.  The  proprietor,  there- 


SEC.  viii.]  LABOR   OR  SERF  RENTS.  53 

fore,  may  increase  the  rent  of  the  land  held  by  his  serfs, 
either  by  exacting  more  labor  from  them,  or  by  using  their 
labor  more  efficiently. 

If  more  labor  is  exacted  from  the  serf,  he  is  in  fact  thrust 
farther  downwards  in  the  scale  of  comfort  and  respectability ; 
his  exertions  become  more  reluctant,  more  languid,  and  in- 
efficient ;  the  proprietor  gains  little  by  his  increased  services  ; 
the  community  gains  nothing  by  the  rise  of  rents ;  for  if  the 
lands  held  by  the  proprietors  be  better  tilled  by  the  addi- 
tional culture  bestowed  upon  them,  those  held  by  the  serfs 
must  be  worse  tilled  when  labor  is  withdrawn  from  them. 
The  second  mode  of  increasing  the  rents  of  the  lands  held 
by  the  serfs,  the  using  the  labor  of  the  tenantry  more  skil- 
fully and  efficiently,  is  attended  by  no  disadvantages.  It 
leads  to  an  unquestionable  augmentation  of  the  revenues  of 
the  nation.  The  lands  held  by  the  proprietors  produce 
more,  those  held  by  the  serfs  do  not  produce  less.  But  the 
unfitness  of  the  proprietors,  as  a  body,  to  advance  the  science 
of  agriculture,  or  improve  the  conduct  of  its  details,  makes 
this  mode  of  increasing  the  rents  derived  from  the  lands 
which  the  serfs  hold,  rare.  It  would  be  visionary  to  count 
upon  it  as  the  source  of  any  general  improvement  in  the 
revenues  of  the  landed  class. 

A  change  from  Labor  Rents  to  Produce  Rents  always  desirable. 

The  illusory  nature  of  all  attempts  to  increase  labor  rents 
by  exacting  more  and  more  labor  from  the  serfs,  and  the 
repugnance  of  the  proprietors,  as  a  body,  to  the  task  of 
increasing  their  revenue  by  the  better  application  of  the 
labor  due  to  them,  make  us  conclude  that  the  substitution 


54  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

of  produce  or  money  rents  is  the  only  step  by  which  the 
interest  of  the  landlords  of  serfs  can  be  substantially  and 
permanently  promoted.  It  is  impossible  to  cast  an  eye  on 
what  is  passing  in  the  east  of  Europe  without  seeing  how 
deeply  this  is  felt  by  the  proprietors  themselves.  The  irk- 
someness  of  the  task  of  superintending  the  operations  of 
agriculture,  the  uncertainty  of  their  returns,  and  the  burthen- 
some  nature  of  their  connexion  with  their  tenantry,  make 
them  every  where  anxious  for  a  change.  To  these  motives 
we  must  add  first,  the  gradual  increase  in  some  districts  of 
the  prescriptive  rights  of  the  serfs  to  the  hereditary  pos- 
session of  their  allotments ;  which  makes  them  the  more 
unmanageable  and  less  profitable  tenants ;  and  then  the 
example  of  western  Europe,  with  which  the  proprietors  of 
its  eastern  division  are  familiarly  acquainted ;  and  which 
presents  to  them  a  race  of  landlords  freed  from  almost  all 
the  vexations  and  embarrassments  with  which  the  manage- 
ment of  their  own  estates  is  encumbered.  In  the  desire  of 
the  proprietors  for  a  change,  the  governments  have  joined 
heartily.  A  wish  to  extend  the  authority  and  protection  of 
the  general  government  over  the  mass  of  cultivators,  and  to 
increase  their  efficiency,  and  through  that  the  wealth  and 
financial  resources  of  the  state,  has  led  the  different  sovereigns 
always  to  co-operate,  and  often  to  take  the  lead,  in  putting 
an  end  to  the  personal  dependence  of  the  serf,  and  modi- 
fying the  terms  of  his  tenure.  To  these  reasons  of  the  sov- 
ereigns and  landlords,  dictated  by  obvious  self-interest,  we 
must  add  other  motives  which  do  honor  to  their  characters 
and  to  the  age,  the  existence  of  which  it  would  be  a  mere 
affectation  of  hard-hearted  wisdom  to  doubt;  namely,  a 


SEC.  viii.]  LABOR    OR   SERF  RENTS.  55 

paternal  desire  on  the  part  of  sovereigns  to  elevate  the  con- 
dition, and  increase  the  comforts,  of  the  most  numerous 
class  of  the  human  beings  committed  to  their  charge ;  and 
a  philanthropic  dislike  on  the  part  of  the  proprietors  to  be 
surrounded  by  a  race  of  wretched  dependents,  whose  degra- 
dation and  misery  reflect  discredit  on  themselves.  These 
feelings  have  produced  the  fermentation  on  the  subject  of 
labor  rents,  which  is  at  this  moment  working  throughout 
the  large  division  of  Europe  in  which  they  prevail.  —  From 
the  crown  lands  in  Russia,  through  Poland,1  Hungary,  and 
Germany,  there  have  been  within  the  last  century,  or  are 
now,  plans  and  schemes  on  foot,  either  at  once  or  gradually 
to  get  rid  of  the  tenure,  or  greatly  to  modify  its  effects,  and 
improve  its  character ;  and  if  the  wishes,  or  the  authority, 
of  the  state,  or  of  the  proprietors,  could  abolish  the  system 
and  substitute  a  better  in  its  place,  it  would  vanish  from  the 
face  of  Europe.  The  actual  poverty  of  the  serfs,  however, 
and  the  degradation  of  their  habits  of  industry,  present  an 
insurmountable  obstacle  to  any  general  change  which  is  to 
be  complete  and  sudden.  In  their  imperfect  civilization 
and  half  savage  carelessness,  the  necessity  originated  which 
forced  proprietors  themselves  to  raise,  the  produce  on  which 
their  families  were  to  subsist.  That  necessity  has  not  ceased ; 
the  tenantry  are  not  yet  ripe  —  in  some  instances,  not  riper 
than  they  were  1000  years  ago  —  to  be  entrusted  with  the 
responsibility  of  raising  and  paying  produce  rents.  But  as 

1  In  the  work .  (several  times  before  quoted)  of  Mr.  Burnett,  of  Balioi 
College,  Oxford,  entitled  A  View  of  the  present  State  of  Poland,  the  reader 
will  find  some  curious  details  of  the  state  of  loathsome  moral  degradation 
to  which  the  Polish  peasants  are  reduced.  The  author  was  for  some  time 
private  tutor  in  a  Polish  family. 


56  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

the  past  progress  and  actual  circumstances  of  different  dis- 
tricts are  found  unlike,  so  their  capacity  for  present  change 
differs  in  kind  and  degree.  Hence  the  great  variety  observ- 
able in  plans  for  altering  the  relations  between  the  serf  ten- 
antry and  their  landlords.  Such  a  variety  is  exhibited  in 
the  Urbarium  of  Maria  Theresa,  in  the  edict  by  which  the 
views  of  the  Livonian  nobility  were  made  law ;  in  the  con- 
stitution of  Poland,  and  in  the  decrees  of  the  sovereigns  of 
smaller  districts.  The  ameliorations  produced  by  these  steps 
are  valuable,  if,  after  having  worked  successfully  for  some 
time,  they  prepare  the  way  for  two  great  measures  which 
are  the  aim  of  all  parties  in  a  more  advanced  state  of  society, 
that  is,  first,  the  general  commutation  of  the  revenue  derived 
from  the  allotments  of  the  serfs  into  produce  rents,  and  then, 
the  establishment  on  the  domains  held  by  the  proprietors 
themselves  of  a  race  of  tenantry  able  to  relieve  them  from 
the  task  of  cultivation,  and  to  pay  either  produce  or  money 
rents.  But  these  results  are  difficult  and  distant.  The 
manner  in  which  such  a  change  was  effected  in  England,  is 
that  in  which  it  is  most  easy  and  safe.  It  was  the  growth 
of  centuries  ;  it  took  place  insensibly  :  the  villeins  we  know 
gradually  assumed  the  character  of  copyholders  paying  fixed 
dues,  which  again  were  slowly  commuted  for  money :  in  the 
mean  time,  the  growth  of  the  free  population  multiplied  the 
numbers  of  hired  laborers,  by  whose  assistance  the  propri- 
etors might  cultivate  their  domains,  without  serf  labor ;  and 
the  increase  and  progressive  prosperity  of  an  intermediate 
class  of  agricultural  capitalists  supplied,  after  a  long  interval, 
a  race  of  men  fitted  to  relieve  the  proprietors  from  the 
charge  of  agriculture  altogether,  and  enabled  to  pay  their 


SEC.  viii.]  LABOR    OR  SERF  RENTS.  57 

rents  in  money  from  the  increase  of  internal  commerce,  and 
of  the  market  provided  by  non -agricultural  classes  for  their 
produce.  A  process  similar  to  this  has  been  going  on  in  the 
western  part  of  Germany,  though  it  is  yet  far  indeed  from 
being  complete  there.  The  enslaved  serf  has  become  a  free 
leibeigener  with  fixed  services  :  the  leibeigener  is  chang- 
ing gradually  into  a  meyer,  whose  services  are  commuted 
for  produce  or  money ;  some  few l  free  laborers  exist,  and 
are  hired  by  the  proprietors  who  farm  their  domains ;  and  of 
these  domains  a  new  race  of  tenantry  are  in  some  instances 
beginning  to  take  possession,  advancing  the  necessary  capital, 
paying  money  rents,  and  discharging  the  land-owners  from 
all  share  in  the  task  of  cultivation. 

In  the  mean  time,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  sover- 
eigns and  proprietors  of  countries  further  east,  who  see  this 
process  hardly  begun  amongst  themselves,  and  know  that 
it  may  take  centuries  to  complete  itself,  should  feel  im- 
patient of  such  delay  in  the  career  of  their  improvement, 
and  determine  forcibly  to  anticipate  the  slow  advance  of 
unpurposed  change. 

The  Prussian  government  has  taken  the  most  decisive 
and  extensive  measures  in  this  spirit.  Throughout  a  great 
part  of  Prussia,  the  serfs  had  acquired  prescriptive  rights, 
either  to  the  hereditary  possession  of  their  allotments,  or  to 
the  occupation  of  them  for  life ;  rights  which,  though  im- 
perfect, made  any  marked  change  difficult.  To  declare  the 
serfs  mere  tenants  at  will,  would  have  had  the  appearance  of 
great  harshness,  and  could  not  probably  have  been  attempted 
on  a  large  scale,  without  violence  and  convulsion.  To  declare 

1  They  are  very  few. 


58  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n, 

them  proprietors  of  the  soil  they  occupied,  was  not  doing 
justice  to  the  fair  claims  of  the  landowners.  The  govern- 
ment steered  a  middle  course.  In  1811  labor  rents  to  the 
east  of  the  Elbe  were  suppressed,  and  it  was  decided,  that 
the  peasants  who  had  acquired  an  hereditary  right  to  their 
allotments  should  pay  the  proprietors  a  third  of  the  produce  : 
that  those  who  had  only  a  claim  to  a  lifehold  possession 
should  pay  half  the  produce  :  the  peasants  were  to  find  all 
capital  and  to  pay  all  expences  and  taxes.1 

These  rents  are  heavy  :  half  the  produce,  the  tenants  pro- 
viding capital  and  paying  all  expences,  is  the  heaviest  rent 
known  in  Europe,  with  the  exception  of  those  paid  by  the 
Neapolitan  metayers,  whose  soil  will  bear  no  comparison 
with  the  Prussian  sands,  and  is  in  fact  unrivalled  for  produc- 
tiveness and  easy  tillage.  It  is  not  surprising  that  some  of 
the  serfs  should  have  declined  to  accede  to  the  arrangement, 
although  it  delivered  them  from  a  state  of  virtual 2  bondage, 
and  guaranteed  their  right  to  possession. 

Two  great  objects  were  sought  by  this  arrangement ;  the 
improvement  of  the  condition  of  the  peasantry,  and  the 
promotion  of  good  agriculture  among  the  proprietors.  Its 
immediate  effects  have  been  to  divide  the  surface  of  the 
country  between  a  race  of  small  proprietors  subject  to  a 
heavy  rent  charge,  and  a  body  of  large  landholders  farming 
their  own  domains.  That  the  condition  of  the  peasants  will 

1  Different  statements  have  been  published  as  to  the  terms  of  this  gen- 
eral commutation.    Schmalz,  however,  who  was  "  conseiller  intime  "  of  the 
King  of  Prussia,  and  Professor  "  du  droit  public  "  at  Berlin,  must  be  con- 
sidered unquestionable  authority.     Schmalz,  Vol.  II.  p.  105. 

2  Personal  bondage  had  legally  ceased  to  exist  from  the  loth  November, 
j8io.    Schmalz,  Vol.  II.  p.  103. 


SEC.  viii.]  LABOR    OR  SERF  RENTS.  59 

be  at  first  improved,  supposing  them  not  to  be  weighed 
down  by  the  rents,  is  sufficiently  clear ;  their  future  progress, 
however,  justifies  some  apprehensions :  they  are  exactly  in 
the  condition  in  which  the  animal  disposition1  to  increase 
their  numbers  is  checked  by  the  fewest  of  those  balancing 
motives  and  desires  which  regulate  the  increase  of  superior 
ranks  or  of  more  civilized  people,  and  if  the  too  great  sub- 
division of  their  allotments  is  not  guarded  against  in  time, 
they  will  probably,  in  the  course  of  a  very  few  generations, 
be  more  miserable  than  their  ancestors  were  as  serfs,  and 
will  certainly  be  more  hopeless  and  helpless  in  their  misery, 
since  they  will  have  no  landlord  to  resort  to.  In  the  mean 
time  a  race  of  free  laborers  will  doubtless  spring  up,  with 
whose  assistance  the  proprietors  may  institute  a  better  course 
of  husbandry  on  their  domains,  but  they  will  still  have 
to  provide  capital,  attention,  and  science,  and  in  the  two 
first  of  these  it  is  to  be  feared  that,  as  a  body,  they  will 
always  be  deficient.  More  advances  must  be  made  by  them 
in  money  than  when  they  cultivated  with  the  assistance  of 
their  serfs,  and  this  circumstance  will  increase  their  diffi- 
culties and  multiply  the  chances  of  their  failure.  After  all, 
the  task  of  cultivation  is  ungenial  to  them.  Their  objects 
will  never  be  fully  attained  till  a  race  of  tenantry  appears, 
able  to  advance  the  necessary  capital  and  undertake  -for  a 
money  rent.  These  are  likely  to  appear  slowly  in  Prussia, 
-  even  though  they  should  appear  there  much  less  slowly  than 
in  some  of  the  surrounding  nations.  The  body  of  the 

iThe  actual  disposition  of  the  population  to  increase  with  extreme 
rapidity  shews  that  these  apprehensions  are  far  from  fanciful.  See  Jacob's 
Second  Report. 


60  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

peasants,  it  is  tolerably  evident  already,  will  not  grow  rich 
enough  to  supply  them,  and  they  must  spring  out  of  the 
bosom  of  other  classes.  The  comparative  numbers,  and 
therefore  joint  wealth  of  these  are  small,  and  the  process,  by 
which  they  can  become  the  farmers  of  all  the  domains  of  an 
extensive  country,  must  be  slow  indeed. 

In  the  mean  time,  there  will  be  great  differences  in  this 
respect  between  different  parts  of  Germany.  Amtmen,  who 
occupy  the  land,  not  as  agents,  but  tenants,  are  already  com- 
mon in  some  states  :  in  others  almost  unknown.  Those  dis- 
tricts of  course  will  profit  the  most  rapidly  and  largely  by 
the  late  changes,  which  were  approaching  themselves  to  the 
condition  in  which  they  are  now  placed,  and  were  provided 
with  some  of  the  elements  of  a  new  and  better  state  of 
things.  Those  in  which  the  actual  changes  were  prepared 
by  no  spontaneous  advances,  will  for  some  time  disappoint, 
it  is  to  be  feared,  in  a  great  degree,  the  benevolent  impa- 
tience of  those  statesmen,  who  wished  to  speed  them  forcibly 
in  paths  of  improvement,  which  they  are  not  full  grown  and 
strong  enough  to  tread  steadily. 

Leaving  however  individual  instances,  and  surveying  the 
whole  broad  mass  of  labor  rents  throughout  that  larger 
division  of  Europe  in  which  they  still  preponderate,  either 
entire,  or  in  different  stages  of  decomposition,  it  will  be 
sufficiently  obvious,  that  some  ages  must  elapse,  before 
those  new  elements  of  society  are  perfected,  and  that 
better  state  of  things  matured,  in  which  this  mode  of 
tenure  is  destined  finally  to  merge.  For  a  long  and  in- 
definite period  now  before  us,  therefore,  the  ancient  system 
of  serf  rents,  modified  in  its  forms,  but  enduring  in  its 


SEC.  viii.]  LABOR    OR  SERF  RENTS.  61 

effects,  will  imprint  much  of  their  character  on  those  im- 
perfect institutions  which  are  slowly  springing  up  from  its 
decay.  The  future  progress  of  eastern  Europe,  the  sources 
of  its  wealth,  and  strength,  and  all  the  elements  of  its 
social  and  political  institutions,  will  continue  to  be  mainly 
influenced  by  the  results  of  the  gradual  alterations  now 
taking  place  in  those  relations  between  the  proprietors 
and  cultivators  of  the  soil,  which  have  hitherto  formed  the 
rude  bond  by  which  society  has  been  held  together.  The 
progress,  however,  of  this,  the  larger  part  of  the  most  im- 
portant division  of  the  globe,  must  for  some  generations  be 
a  spectacle  of  deep  interest  to  us,  to  their  immediate 
western  neighbours,  and  to  all  the  nations,  in  fact,  who 
have  hitherto  kept  the  lead  in  the  career  of  European 
civilization.  We  see  the  masses  of  people  who  occupy 
the  eastern  and  northern  divisions  of  our  quarter  of  the 
earth,  stirring  and  instinct  with  a  new  spirit  of  life  and 
power,  beginning  to  acquire  fresh  intellect  and  a  less 
shackled  industry,  and  to  unfold  more  efficiently  the  moral 
and  physical  capabilities  of  their  huge  territories.  They 
already  assume  a  station  in  Europe  somewhat  propor- 
tioned to  the  extent  of  their  natural  resources ;  and  the 
fate  of  those  nations  which  have  hitherto  been  the  deposi- 
taries of  the  civilization  of  the  modern  world,  is  for  the 
future  inseparably  connected  with  events,  which  the  career 
of  these  powerful  neighbours  must  engender.  We  cannot 
but  see  how  intimately  the  course  of  that  career  is  depen- 
dent on  present  and  future  changes  in  the  system  of  labor 
rents,  and  for  this  cause  surely,  if  for  no  other,  that  system 
deserves  the  careful  attention  of  all  who  may  apply  them- 


62  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  n. 

selves  to  the  task  of  explaining  the  nature  of  the  rent  of 
land,  and  examining  its  influence  on  the  character  and 
fortunes  of  different  nations. 

Those  indeed,  who  value  what  is  called  political  economy, 
chiefly  because  it  leads  to  an  insight  into  the  manner  in 
which  the  physical  circumstances,  which  surround  man  on 
earth,  develope  or  sway  his  moral  character,  will  feel  inter- 
ested on  yet  higher  grounds  in  tracing  the  effects  of  a 
system,  springing  out  of  that  common  necessity,  which,  for 
a  long  period  in  the  growth  of  nations,  binds  the  majority 
of  their  population  to  the  earth  they  till ;  a  system,  which 
has  continued  for  a  series  of  ages  to  stamp  its  peculiar 
impress  on  the  political,  the  intellectual,  and  moral  features 
of  so  large  a  division  of  the  human  race.1 

1  When  these  pages  were  first  written,  I  had  not  seen  the  Second  Report 
of  Mr.  Jacob,  which  has  since  been  published  in  a  form  suited  to  general 
circulation.  That  gentleman  has  lately  been  on  the  spot,  and  has  cast  his 
extremely  acute  and  practised  eye  upon  the  actual  condition  and  probable 
progress  of  the  agricultural  portion  of  eastern  Europe.  He  has  come  to 
results  remarkably  similar  to  those  which  I  had  ventured  to  suggest  from 
a  more  distant  and  general  knowledge  of  their  circumstances.  The  still 
predominant  influence  of  labor  rents  :  the  general  want  of  capital  among 
the  proprietors :  the  rapid  increase  in  the  numbers  of  the  peasant  cultivators 
which  has  been  taking  place  since  their  dependence  on  the  landlords  has 
been  less  servile  :  the  feeble  beneficial  effects  on  agriculture  and  on  the  gen- 
eral composition  of  society  which  in  twenty  years  have  sprung  from  the 
strong  measures  of  the  Prussian  government :  the  difficulties  which  every 
where  oppose  themselves  to  all  sudden  changes  in  the  old  system  of  culti- 
vation: the  strong  apparent  probability  that  the  future  progress  in  the 
eastern  division  of  Europe  will  not,  with  all  the  efforts  that  are  making,  be 
much  more  rapid  than  that  of  this  country  when  emerging  from  a  similar 
state  of  things ;  all  these  are  points  on  which  I  can  now  refer  with  very 
great  satisfaction  to  the  local  knowledge  and  authority  of  Mr.  Jacob,  in 
support  of  the  suggestions  I  have  here  thrown  out.  See  Second  Report 
passim,  but  more  especially  140  and  the  following  pages. 


CHAPTER  III. 

SECTION  I. 

Metayer  Rents. 

THE  Metayer  is  a  peasant  tenant  extracting  his  own 
wages  and  subsistence  from  the  soil.  He  pays  a  produce 
rent  to  the  owner  of  the  land  from  which  he  obtains  his 
food.  The  landlord,  besides  supplying  him  with  the  land 
on  which  he  lives,  supplies  him  also  with  the  stock  by  which 
his  labor  is  assisted.  The  payment  to  the  landlord  may 
be  considered,  therefore,  to  consist  of  two  distinct  por- 
tions :  one  constitutes  the  profits  of  his  stock,  the  other  his 
rent. 

The  stock  advanced  is  ordinarily  small.  It  consists  of 
seed  ;  of  some  rude  implements  ;  of  the  materials  of  others 
which  the  peasant  manufactures;  and  of  such  materials 
for  his  other  purposes  as  the  land  itself  affords;  building 
timber,  stone,  &c.  and  occasionally  of  some  draft  animals. 
If  not  assisted  by  the  productive  powers  of  the  soil,  by  the 
machinery  of  the  earth,  this  stock  would  either  be  wholly 
insufficient  for  the  permanent  maintenance  of  any  laborers, 
or,  turned  into  some  other  shape,  it  would  provide  for 
the  temporary  support  of  a  very  small  number.  When 
applied,  however,  to  assist  the  peculiar  powers  of  the  earth, 
this  small  stock  is  found  sufficient  to  enable  a  numerous 
body  of  laborers  permanently  to  maintain  themselves ;  and 

63 


6+  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  in. 

in  the  produce  of  their  industry  the  landlord  shares.  The 
produce  which  the  possession  of  land  has  thus  enabled  him 
to  acquire,  and  which  without  the  land  he  could  not  have 
acquired,  is  that  portion  of  the  annual  produce  of  the  labor 
of  the  country  which  falls  to  his  share  as  a  land-holder.  It 
is  rent.  The  rest  is  profits.  In  the  more  advanced  stages 
of  civilization,  it  is  easy  to  decide  in  each  particular  case, 
what  proportion  of  the  landlord's  revenue  from  a  metayer 
farm  is  rent,  and  what  proportion  profits.  In  the  ruder 
stages,  it  is  more 'difficult;  but  we  shall  have  occasion  to 
advert  to  this  hereafter. 

The  existence  of  such  a  race  of  tenantry  indicates  some 
improvement  in  the  body  of  the  people,  compared  with 
the  state  of  things  in  which  serf  rents  originate.  They  are 
entrusted  with  the  task  of  providing  the  food  and  annual 
revenue  of  the  proprietor,  without  his  superintending,  or 
interfering  with,  their  exertions. 

The  metayer,  then,  must  be  somewhat  superior  in  skill 
and  character  to  the  serfs,  whose  industry  can  be  safely 
depended  on  by  the  proprietor,  only  while  exercised  under 
his  direct  control,  and  whose  rents  are  therefore  paid,  not 
in  produce,  but  in  labor.  But  still  the  advance  of  stock 
by  the  proprietor,  and  the  abandonment  of  the  management 
of  cultivation  to  the  actual  laborers,  indicate  the  continued 
absence  of  an  intermediate  class  of  capitalists ;  of  men  able 
to  advance  from  their  own  accumulations  the  food  of  the 
laborer  and  the  stock  by  which  he  is  assisted ;  and  thus  to 
take  upon  themselves  the  direction  of  agriculture.  The 
metayer  system  indicates,  therefore,  a  state  of  society, 
Advanced,  when  compared  with  that  in  which  serf  rents 


SEC.  ii.]  METAYER  RENTS.  65 

prevail ;  backward,  when  compared  with  that  in  which  rents 
paid  by  capitalists  make  their  appearance. 

It  is  found  springing  up  in  various  parts  of  the  world, 
engrafted  occasionally  on  the  serf  rents  we  have  been  review- 
ing, and  more  often  on  the  system  of  ryot  rents  we  have  yet 
to  examine.  But  it  is  in  the  western  division  of  continental 
Europe,  in  Italy,  Savoy,  Piedmont,  the  Valteline,  France,  and 
Spain,  that  pure  metayer  tenantry  are  the  most  common, 
and  it  is  there  that  they  influence  most  decidedly  the  systems 
of  cultivation  and  those  important  relations  between  the 
different  orders  of  society,  which  originate  in  the  appro- 
priation of  the  soil.  Into  those  countries,  once  provinces  of 
the  Roman  Empire,  they  were  introduced  by  the  Romans, 
and,  to  discover  their  origin  in  Europe,  we  .must  turn  back 
our  eyes  for  an  instant  on  the  classical  nations  of  antiquity. 


SECTION  II. 
Of  Metayer  Rents  in  Greece. 

GREECE,  when  it  first  presents  materials  for  authentic 
history,  was,  for  the  most  part,  divided  into  small  properties 
cultivated  by  the  labor  of  the  proprietors,  assisted  by  that  of 
slaves.  But  before  we  observe  how  this  state  of  things  led 
the  way  to  the  establishment  of  metayer  rents,  it  should  be 
remarked,  that  relics  of  a  system  which  even  in  those  days 
bore  the  marks  of  antiquity,  and  was  becoming  obsolete, 
were  still  to  be  seen  in  many  districts  of  Greece. 

Irruptions  from  other  countries,  as  to  the  details  of  which 
the  learned  dispute  in  vain,  had,  previous  to  the  aera  of 
F 


66  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  in. 

historical  certainty,  filled  several  provinces  of  Greece  with 
foreign  masters.  These  people,  in  some  instances  at  least, 
found  the  original  inhabitants  acquainted  with  agriculture, 
the  toils  of  which  they  had  no  inclination,  perhaps  not 
sufficient  skill,  to  share.  They  converted  therefore  the 
husbandmen  into  a  peculiar  species  of  tenantry,  differing 
from  the  serf  tenantry  of  modern  Europe  in  this,  that  though 
attached  to  the  soil,  and  a  sort  of  predial  bondsmen,  they 
paid,  not  labor,  but  produce  rents,  and  belonged,  in  some 
remarkable  instances,  not  to  individuals,  but  to  the  state. 
These  tenants  were  called  in  Crete  Perioeci,  Mnotoe,  Apha- 
miotae ;  in  Laconia  Perioeci  and  Helots ;  in  Attica  Thetes 
and  Pelatae ;  in  Thessaly  Penestse,  and  in  other  districts 
by  other  names.1 

The  produce  rents,  which  this  tenantry  were  bound  in 
Crete  to  pay  to  the  government,  enabled  the  legislators  of 
that  island  to  establish  public  tables  in  the  different  dis- 

1  This  sketch  of  the  tenantry  peculiar  to  early  Greece  might  have  been 
made  more  extensive  and  perhaps  more  precise.  They  may  be  traced  in 
many  other  districts,  and  some  distinctions  might  certainly  be  drawn  be- 
tween the  classes  named :  but  this  is  a  subject  into  the  details  of  which  it 
would  be  difficult  to  enter,  without  either  launching  into  lengthy  discussion, 
or  stating  shortly  as  facts,  what  are  really  only  conjectures.  Those  who 
may  wish  to  follow  the  matter  up  to  the  original  testimony,  on  which  all 
conclusions  relating  to  it  must  rest,  may  consult  Ruhnken's  notes  on  the 
words  TreAarrjs  and  irevevriKov  in  his  edition  of  the  Platonic  Lexicon  of 
Timaeus,  two  notes  relating  to  the  institutions  of  Laconia  and  Crete,  affixed 
to  Gottling's  edition  of  Aristotle's  Politics  ;  and  above  all  Miiller's  elaborate 
history  of  the  Dorian  states,  a  valuable  work,  for  a  translation  of  which  the 
English  public  are  about  to  be  indebted,  and  very  deeply  indebted  cer- 
tainly, to  Messrs.  Tuffnell  and  Lewis.  While  referring  to  the  two  last  of 
these  German  writers,  it  may  be  right  to  mention  that  there  are  one  or  two 
points  on  which  I  must  venture  to  dissent  from  their  conclusions :  these  are 
shortly  noticed  in  Appendix  IV. 


SEC.  ii.]  METAYER  RENTS.  67 

tricts,  at  which  the  freemen  and  their  families  were  fed.1  This 
institution  Lycurgus  established  or  renewed  at  Lacedsemon, 
where  the  tables  were  supplied  by  the  produce  of  the 
industry  of  the  Helots ;  and  wherever  Syssitise  or  common 
tables  can  be  traced,  it  is  at  least  probable,  that  they  were 
supplied  by  a  similar  race  of  tenants. 

In  Attica,  the  existence  of  the  Thetes  or  Pelatae  (as  this 
tenantry  were  there  called)  exercised  no  such  influence  on 
the  general  habits  of  the  citizens  as  it  did  in  Crete,  in 
Sparta,  and  in  other  Dorian  states ;  and  when  they  were 
restored  by  Solon  to  personal  freedom,  though  not  to  the 
political  rights  of  citizens,  the  alteration  led  to  no  striking 
results.2 

It  requires  indeed  some  little  attention  to  discern  their 
past  existence  among  the  Athenians ;  and  the  details  of 
their  condition  are  now  perhaps  out  of  the  reach  of  re- 
search. MopTr)  was  the  name  applied  indifferently,  it 
should  seem,  both  to  the  share  paid  as  rent  and  that 
retained  by  the  Thetes.  The  rent  usually  consisted  of  a 
sixth  of  the  produce,  hence  their  name  of  cfcr^/ioptot, 
sometimes  it  was  a  fourth,  and  then  the  Pelatse  were  said 
TeT/oa^ctv.  The  Penestae  of  Thessaly  were  a  body  of  simi- 
lar tenantry.  With  the  exception  of  the  districts  occupied 

1  Aristotle's  Politics,  Book  II. 

2  Boeckh,  however,  seems  of  opinion  that  at  one  period  of  the  history  of 
Attica,   all  the  cultivators   of  its  territory  were  Thetes.     (Vol.  I.  p.  250. 
English  Translation.)     They  may  have  been  so;   but  it  is  impossible,  I 
think,  to  read  the  fifth  book  of  the  Memorabilia,  (the  OUCOVO/OUKOS  Aoyos)  of 
Xenophon,  without  feeling  persuaded,  that  in  his  days  the  very  memory  of 
such  a  state  of  things  was  gone.    The  Thetes  continued  to  exist  as  a  class 
in  the  state  long  after  they  had  ceased  to  be  its  exclusive  cultivators,  if  they 
ever  were  such. 


68  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  in. 

by  this  peculiar  species  of  tenantry,  and  of  the  lands  be- 
longing to  towns  which  seem  often  to  have  let  for  terms  of 
years  at  money  rents,  the  lands  of  Greece  were  very  gener- 
ally in  the  possession  of  freemen,  cultivating  small  properties 
with  the  assistance  of  slaves. 

Slaves  were  very  numerous.  Men  distributed  like  the 
Greeks  into  small  tribes  of  rude  freemen,  surrounded  by 
similar  tribes,  probably  exhibit  the  pugnacious  qualities  of 
human  nature  in  the  highest  degree  known.  It  has  often 
been  observed  with  truth,  that  in  such  a  state  of  society  the 
appearance  of  domestic  slavery  indicates  a  considerable 
softening  of  the.  manners.  When  warrior  nations  have 
found  out  the  means  of  making  the  labor  of  captives  con- 
tribute to  their  own  ease,  they  preserve  them.  Before  they 
have  made  such  a  discovery  they  put  them  to  death. 
Among  the  North  American  Indians,  the  labor  of  no  man 
will  do  more  than  maintain  himself;  no  profit  is  to  be 
made  of  a  slave ;  hence,  unless  the  captive  is  selected  to 
take  upon  himself  in  the  character  of  a  son  or  husband  the 
task  of  protecting  and  providing  food  for  a  family  deprived 
of  its  chief,  he  is  invariably  slaughtered.  Some  tribes  of 
Tartars  on  the  borders  of  Persia  massacre  all  the  true 
believers  who  fall  into  their  hands,  but  preserve  all  heretics 
and  infidels;  because  their  religion  forbids  them  to  make 
slaves  of  true  believers,  and  allows  them  to  use  or  sell 
all  others  at  their  pleasure. 

The  Greeks  used  the  slaves,  with  which  their  frequent 
wars  supplied  them,  in  all  kinds  of  menial  and  laborious 
occupations,  and  a  notion  that  such  occupations  could  not 
be  filled  without  slaves,  became  so  familiar,  that  even  their 


SEC.  ii.]  METAYER  RENTS.  69 

acutest  philosophers  seem  never  to  have  doubted  its 
accuracy  or  justice.  A  commonwealth,  says  Aristotle,  con- 
sists of  families,  and  a  family  to  be  complete  must  con- 
sist of  freemen  and  slaves,1  and  in  fixing  on  the  form  of 
government,  which  according  to  him  would  be  most  perfect, 
and  conduce  the  most  to  the  happiness  of  mankind,  he 
requires  that  his  territory  should  be  cultivated  by  slaves  of 
different  races  and  destitute  of  spirit,  that  so  they  may  be 
useful  for  labor,  and  that  the  absence  of  any  disposition 
to  revolt  may  be  securely  relied  on.2  The  condition  of 
Africa  is  now  in  this  particular,  much  like  that  of  Greece 
then.  One  of  the  late  travellers  was  explaining  to  an 
African  chief  that  there  are  no  slaves  in  England.  "No 
"slaves,"  exclaimed  their  auditor,  "then  what  do  you  do 
"for  servants?" 

In  Greece  the  labor  of  cultivation  was  at  first  shared 
between  the  master  and  slave.  This  must  always  be  while 
properties  are  small ;  and  accordingly  it  was  so  in  Latium. 
Cincinnatus  would  have  starved  on  his  four  acres,  had  he 
trusted  to  the  produce  slaves  could  extract  from  it,  and 
neglected  to  lay  his  own  hands  on  the  plough.  But  as 
civilization  went  forward  in  Greece,  properties  became 
enlarged.  The  proprietors  clung  to  cities ;  where  popular 
governments  offered  to  the  active  duties  to  perform,  and 
objects  of  ambition  to  aspire  to,  and  to  the  indolent  and 
voluptuous  every  species  of  pleasure,  made  more  seducing 

*  Pol.  Book  I.  Chap.  iii.  otKia  8e  re'Aeio?  e*c  SovAcov  Kal  e\ev9ep<av. 

2  Aristot.  Pol.  Book  VII.  Chap.  x.  If  these  cannot  be  obtained,  Aris- 
totle expresses  a  wish  for  barbarian  perioeci  (compounds  of  the  serf, 
metayer,  and  slave)  of  similar  dispositions. 


70  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  m. 

by  all  the  embellishments  that  could  be  created  by  a  taste 
and  fancy,  which  seem  to  have  belonged  to  those  times  and 
to  that  people  alone.  By  such  occupations  and  amuse- 
ments many  of  the  leading  Grecians  were  so  engrossed, 
that  they  refused  to  give  up  even  the  time  and  attention 
necessary  to  command  their  household  slaves.1  Those  who 
still  attended  to  the  management  of  their  farms  must  have 
found  the  task  difficult  and  hazardous.  Xenophon  has  left 
an  accurate  picture  of  the  mode  in  which  the  Grecian  gen- 
tlemen of  his  day  conducted  the  cultivation  of  their  estates. 
In  one  of  the  dialogues  of  the  Memorabilia,  Socrates  re- 
lates a  conversation  he  had  had  with  Ischomachus,  who  was 
by  the  confession  of  all,  men  and  women,  foreigners  and 
citizens,  KaAos  K<U  dya0o?,  an  accomplished  and  good  man. 
Ischomachus  details  those  particulars  of  his  domestic 
economy  which  had  principally  earned  for  him  this  general 
praise,  and  explains  at  large  his  management  of  his  house- 
hold, his  wife,  and  finally  his  estate.  It  appears  in  the 
progress  of  the  dialogue,  that  the  estate  of  Ischomachus 
was  within  a  short  distance  of  Athens,  that  he  rode  to  it 
very  frequently,  paid  it  much  personal  attention,  and  super- 
intended all  its  arrangements  with  great  care.  While  cul- 
tivation was  carried  on  under  the  superintendance  of  such 
men ;  while  proprietors  freed  from  all  necessity  of  personal 
labor,  liberal,  learned,  and  wealthy,  sedulously  applied  the 
powers  of  their  minds  to  agriculture,  the  art  made  rapid 
progress,  and  a  succession  of  writers  on  the  subject  ap- 

i  Arist.  Pol.  Book  I.  Chap.  iv.  Those  who  are  able  to  escape  these  vexa- 
tions, procure  a  steward  to  undertake  the  task;  while  they  themselves 
attend  to  politics  or  philosophy. 


SEC.  II.]  METAYER  RENTS.  71 

peared  in  various  parts  of  Greece,  whose  works  evidenced 
both  the  quantity  of  intellect  applied  to  the  unfolding  the 
resources  of  the  soil,  and  the  actual  progress  of  cultivation. 

But  causes  which  destroyed  this  system  of  managing  the 
land  were  silently  at  work.  Even  Ischomachus  was  obliged 
to  rely  much  on  his  CTTIO-KOTTOI  or  overseers ;  slaves  who  were 
very  carefully  trained  as  bailiffs,  like  the  Roman  villici.  All 
estates,  however,  could  not  be  like  his  within  a  ride  of  the 
capital ;  the  more  distant  were  necessarily  confided  almost 
wholly  to  these  managing  slaves ;  and  their  management, 
unless  they  differed  utterly  from  all  other  slaves  similarly 
trusted,  must  have  been  very  generally  careless  and  bad. 
As  Greece  too  became  consolidated,  first  by  the  Mace- 
donian, then  the  Roman  influence,  the  possessions  of  in- 
dividual proprietors  naturally  extended  themselves  over  a 
larger  space,  and  profitable  management  by  slave  agents 
must  have  become  more  and  more  impracticable.  At  last 
a  tenant  was  introduced  who,  receiving  from  the  landowner 
his  land  and  stock,  became  responsible  to  him  for  a  certain 
proportion,  usually  half,  of  the  produce  :  and  the  proprietors 
gave  up  finally  all  interference  with  the  task  of  cultivation. 
These  new  tenants  were  called  mortitae,  and  they  are  called 
so  still  in  Greece. 

The  precise  date  at  which  they  began  to  supersede  the 
cultivation  by  proprietors  is  not  known.  It  is  supposed  by 
some  that  this  happened  after  their  connection  with  Rome, 
and  that  /xoprtr^s,  which  is  not  a  word  of  ancient  or  classical 
Greek,  was  a  translation  of  the  Latin  phrase  colonus  par- 
tiarius.  But  we  can  see  so  distinctly  the  same  internal 
causes  which  led  to  the  creation  of  the  Roman  tenantry 


72  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  in. 

acting  in  Greece,  that  it  is  probable  the  mortitse  appeared 
there  as  soon,  if  not  sooner,  than  the  coloni partiarii  among 
the  Romans,  and  that  the  word  /zo/mr^s  was  suggested  by 
//.OPT*),  which  we  have  seen  was  the  name  of  the  produce 
rent  paid  by  the  ancient  Thetes  of  Attica.  However  this 
might  be,  by  such  a  tenantry  the  surface  of  Greece  was 
gradually  occupied ;  they  survived  the  Mahometan  con- 
quest, and  the  lands  of  the  Turkish  Agas  were  very  generally 
cultivated,  before  the  present  disturbances,  by  Grecian 
mortitse  or  metayers.1 


SECTION  III. 

On  Metayers  among  the  Romans. 

THE  causes  which  introduced  metayers  into  Italy  were 
precisely  similar  to  those  which  ultimately  established  them 
in  Greece.  The  Romans  began  by  sharing  with  their  slaves 
the  toils  of  cultivation.  As  the  size  of  estates  enlarged,  their 
owners  became  the  superintendants  of  the  labor  they  before 
assisted.  In  this  stage  the  art  of  agriculture  was  deeply 
studied  in  Rome,  as  it  had  been  in  a  similar  stage  in 
Greece,  by  a  class  of  men  well  qualified  to  carry  it  far 

1  See  Historical  Outline  of  the  Greek  Revolution  published  by  Murray, 
p.  9.  "  The  nominal  conditions  upon  which  the  Christian  peasant  of 
European  Turkey  labours  for  the  Turkish  proprietor,  are  not  oppressive : 
they  were  among  the  many  established  usages  of  the  country  adopted  by 
the  Ottomans,  and  the  practice  is  similar  to  that  which  is  still  very  common 
in  all  the  poorer  countries  of  Europe.  After  the  deduction  of  about  a 
seventh  for  the  imperial  land-tax,  the  landlord  receives  half  the  remainder, 
or  a  larger  share,  according  to  the  proportion  of  seed,  stock,  and  instru- 
ments of  husbandry  which  he  has  supplied." 


SEC.  in.]  METAYER  RENTS.  73 

towards  perfection.  The  works  of  fifty  Greek  writers  on 
agriculture  were  known  to  the  Romans,1  and  those  of  several 
Carthaginians.  Of  these  last,  one,  Mago,  was  marked  by 
the  honorable  distinction  of  having  his  works  translated  into 
Latin  in  obedience  to  a  formal  decree  of  the  Senate. 
Roman  works  on  agriculture  were  less  numerous  than  the 
Greek,  but  they  were  the  productions  of  eminent  men, 
beginning  with  Cato  the  censor  (qui  earn  latine  loqui  primus 
instituit,  Col.)  and  including  Varro  and  Virgil.  The  great 
poet  was  far  from  being  the  last  among  the  cultivators  of 
his  day,  and  has  even,  in  a  few  remarkable  lines,  recom- 
mended that  alternate  husbandry,  and  substitution  of  pulse 
and  green  crops  for  fallows,  which  is  the  main  basis  of  the 
most  important  improvements  of  our  own  times. 

Alternis  idem  tonsas  cessare  novales, 
Et  segnem  patiere  situ  durescere  campum; 
Aut  ibi  flava  seres,  mutato  sidere,  farra, 
Unde  prius  laetum  siliqua"  quassante  legumen 
Aut  tenuis  fetus  viciae,  tristisque  lupini 
Sustuleris  fragiles  calamos  silvamque  sonantem. 

GEOR.  Lib.  I.  1.  71. 

As  the  empire  became  larger,  the  size  of  estates  increased ; 
and  when  they  were  scattered  over  provinces  which  reached 
from  Britain  and  Spain,  to  Asia  Minor  and  Syria,  the  super- 
intendance  of  the  husbandry  carried  on  upon  them  became 
burthensome  and  inefficient,2  and  even  the  task  of  training 
properly  the  villici  or  managers  was  abandoned,  and  the 

1  Columella,  Book  I.  Chap.  i. 

2  Col.  Book  I.  Chap.  i.    Nam  qui  longinqua,  ne  dicam  transmarina  rura 
mercantur,  velut  haeredibus   patrimonio  suo,  et  quod  gravius  est,  vivi, 
cedunt  servis. 


74  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  in. 

lands  given  up  in  some  measure  to  the  discretion  of  an 
inferior  class l  of  slaves.  The  immediate  consequence  was 
such  a  deficiency  in  the  produce,  that  some  strange  and 
unknown  cause  was  supposed  to  be  enfeebling  the  fecundity 
of  the  earth  itself.  Among  even  the  more  eminent  Romans, 
while  some  talked  of  a  long  continued  unwholesomeness  in 
the  seasons,  others  were  inclined  to  a  superstitious  belief, 
that  the  world  was  waxing  old,  and  its  powers  decaying : 
that  the  exuberant  crops  reaped  by  their  forefathers  had 
been  the  produce  of  its  youthful  strength ;  and  that  the 
sterility  which  then  afflicted  it  was  a  symptom  of  its  decrepi- 
tude.2 Columella  saw  more  distinctly  the  real  cause  of  the 
falling  off;  he  describes  in  a  passage  which  has  been  often 
quoted,  the  malpractices  of  the  slaves  on  those  distant  farms, 
which  it  was  not  easy  for  the  proprietor  often  to  visit ;  and 
though  himself  an  indignant  advocate  for  the  more  general 
practice  of  agriculture,  as  the  most  liberal  and  useful  of  arts, 
he  concludes  by  recommending  that  all  such  estates  should 
be  let.  "  Ita  fit  ut  et  actor  et  familia  peccent,  et  ager 
saepius  infametur :  quare  talis  generis  prsedium,  si,  ut,  dixi, 
domini  prsesentia  cariturum  est,  censeo  locandum"* 

A  race  of  tenants  then  gradually  acquired  possession  of 
the  surface  of  Italy  and  the  provinces.  They  were  of 
various  classes,  but  the  coloni  partiarii  or  medietarii,  met- 
ayers, seem  always  to  have  been  favorites,  and  the  terms  on 
which  they  cultivated  to  have  appeared  the  most  just  and 

1  Col.  Book  I.  Chap.  i.  Rem  rusticam  pessimo  cuique  servorum,  velut 
carnifici,  noxae    dedimus,  quam    majorum  nostrorum    optimus    quisque 
optimd  tractaverit. 

2  Col.  Book  I.  Chap.  i.  3  Col.  Book  I.  Chap.  vii. 


SEC.  in.]  METAYER  RENTS.  75 

expedient.  Pliny,  having  tried,  it  seems,  some  other  form 
of  contract  with  his  tenantry,  and .  finding  it  answer  ill,  an- 
nounces in  one  of  his  letters  his  determination  to  adopt  the 
metayer  system  as  the  best  remedy.  "The  only  remedy," 
he  says,  "  I  can  think  of  is,  not  to  reserve  my  rent  in  money 
but  in  kind  (partibus),  and  to  place  some  of  my  servants  to 
overlook  the  tillage,  and  to  take  care  of  my  share  of  the 
produce,  as  indeed  there  is  no  sort  of  revenue  more  just 
than  that,  which  is  regulated  by  the  soil,  the  climate,  and 
the  seasons."1 

The  system  thus  praised,  ultimately  prevailed  throughout 
the  provinces  of  the  empire ;  and  in  the  western  part  of 
Europe,  was  never  wholly  extirpated  by  the  convulsions 
which  accompanied  its  downfall.  In  many  instances  in- 
deed the  first  violence  of  the  barbarians  put  to  flight  all 
regular  industry,  and  into  the  wilderness  which  they  created 
they  were  obliged  to  introduce  labor  rents  and  a  race  of 
serfs.  The  feudal  system  too,  and  the  numerous  body 
of  arriere  vassals  it  gave  birth  to,  changed  the  occupation  of 
much  of  the  country.  But  still,  thick  as  the  darkness  was, 
which  covered  for  a  time  the  remains  of  Roman  civilization, 
its  effects  were  never  wholly  lost.  The  language,  the  cus- 
toms, the  laws  of  the  provincials  still  survived,  and  struggling 
at  last  into  influence  they  communicated  much  of  their 
character  to  that  mixed  race  which  has  arisen  in  western 
Europe :  in  different  degrees  in  different  countries,  but 
enough  in  all  the  principal  kingdoms  to  distinguish  their 

1  Plin.  Epist.  Book  IX.  37.  It  appears  from  another  letter  that  the  most 
expensive  stock  supplied  to  the  tenantry  by  the  proprietors  consisted  of  the 
slaves. 


76  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  m. 

inhabitants  broadly  from  the  more  primitive  race  to   the 
eastward  of  the  Rhine. 

The  class  of  metayers  was  probably  never  any  where 
wholly  destroyed,  and  as  time  softened  the  character  of 
the  conquerors,  and  introduced  some  degree  of  confi- 
dence and  security  into  their  relations  with  the  subject 
cultivators,  industry  began  to  return  to  its  old  employ- 
ments. It  was  always  an  object  gained  by  the  landlord,  if 
he  could  substitute  a  produce  rent,  and  a  tenant  whom  he 
could  trust  with  the  whole  task  of  cultivation,  for  a  rude 
serf  like  the  German  or  Slavonic  boor,  whose  labor  he 
could  rely  on,  only  while  he  himself  enforced  and  superin- 
tended it.  Metayers  therefore  spread  themselves :  the 
domain  lands  of  the  proprietors  fell  generally  into  their 
hands,  and  they  re-acquired  that  general,  though  not  com- 
plete, possession  of  the  agriculture  of  western  Europe, 
which  we  see  them  in  a  great  measure  still  retaining. 


SECTION  IV. 
On  Metayer  Rents   in  France. 

THE  province  of  Gaul  was  violently  affected  in  all  its 
social  relations,  by  the  various  irruptions  and  final  pre- 
dominance of  the  barbarians.  The  gradual  establishment 
of  feudal  tenures,  and  the  introduction  of  serfs  and  labor 
rents,  were  two  of  the  most  important  effects  of  the  change 
of  masters.  The  number  and  species  of  feudal  tenures, 
were  multiplied  to  a  strange  extent  in  France  by  the 


SEC.  iv.]  METAYER  RENTS.  77 

practice  of  subinfeudation ;  which  had  been  checked  in 
England,  but  prevailed  widely  on  the  continent.  The  seig- 
noral  rights,  and  the  rents  and  services  to  which  they  gave 
rise,  were  ranged  by  the  French  lawyers  under  300  heads, 
the  subdivisions  of  which  they  state  to  be  infinite.1 

Some  of  these  multiplied  rights  no  doubt  were  engrafted 
on  the  more  simple  relation  of  the  serfs  to  their  landlords ; 
for  as  the  feudal  system  became  familiar  to  the  people,  the 
notions  and  phraseology  to  which  it  gave  birth,  extended 
themselves  to  a  multitude  of  relations  and  objects,  quite 
foreign  to  the  original  aim  of  the  system  itself.  Thus  on 
the  continent  annuities  in  money  or  corn  were  granted  as 
feuds,  and  occasionally  even  the  use  of  sums  of  money,2  and 
in  England  the  copyholder,  whom  we  can  distinctly  trace  to 
the  villein  or  slave,  was  admitted  to  swear  fealty  and  do 
homage  to  his  lord  much  in  the  manner  of  the  military 
tenants  ;  a  practice  which  still  continues.  Thus  also,  those 
admitted  to  degrees  at  our  Universities  do  feudal  homage 
to  the  Vice-Chancellor.  By  a  similar  abuse  of  feudal 
forms,  some  of  the  serfs  in  France  no  doubt  ranked  at 
last  amongst  the  manorial  tenantry  of  the  Seigneur,  and 
their  relation  was  considered  to  be  a  feudal  one. 

But  besides  the  serfs  thus  gradually  assimilated  to  vassals, 
there  were  other  serfs  whose  state  of  slavery  was  as  distinct 
and  undisguised  as  that  of  the  Russian  cultivators  is  now : 
they  existed  for  some  time  in  considerable  numbers,  and 
continued  to  exist  in  several  provinces  up  to  the  era  of  the 

1  Diet,  de  Finance,  Vol.  II.  p.  115. 

2  Hargreave  and  Butler's  Notes  on  Coke  upon  Littleton.     Sect.  300. 
Note  on  Tenants  in  common. 


78  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  in. 

revolution.  We  will  say  something  of  these  before  we  pro- 
ceed to  the  metayers.  They  were  found  on  the  estates  of 
the  crown,  of  lay  individuals,  and  of  ecclesiastics,  under 
the  name  of  mainmortables,  which  was  used  indifferently 
with  that  of  serf,  and  appears  to  have  been  considered 
synonymous  with  it.  They  were  attached  to  the  soil,  and  if 
they  escaped  from  it,  were  restored  by  the  interference  of 
the  tribunals  to  their  owners,  to  whom  their  persons  and 
those  of  their  posterity  belonged.  They  were  incapable  of 
transmitting  property :  if  they  acquired  any,  their  owners 
might  seize  it  at  their  death  :  the  exercise  of  this  right  was 
in  full  vigor,  and  some  startling  instances  led  Louis  xvi.  to 
make  a  feeble  attempt  at  a  partial  emancipation.  Proprie- 
tors, exercising  their  droit  de  suite,  as  it  was  called,  had 
forced  the  reluctant  tribunals  of  the  king  to  deliver  into 
their  hands  the  property  of  deceased  citizens  who  had  been 
long  settled  as  respectable  inhabitants  in  different  towns  of 
France,  some  even  in  Paris  itself;  but  who  were  proved  to 
have  been  originally  serfs  on  the  estates  of  the  claimants. 
The  contrast  between  the  condition  of  these  poor  people 
and  that  of  the  rest  of  the  population,  became  then  too 
strong  to  be  endured ;  but  though  the  naturally  kind  feel- 
ings of  Louis  appear  to  have  been  roused  upon  the  occasion, 
he  ventured  no  farther,  than  to  give  liberty  to  the  serfs  or 
mainmortables  on  his  own  domains,  and  to  abolish  indirectly 
the  droit  de  suite,  by  forbidding  his  tribunals  to  seize  the 
person  or  property  of  serfs,  who  had  once  become  domiciled 
in  free  districts.  In  the  edict  published  by  the  unfortunate 
monarch  on  this  subject,  he  declares  that  this  state  of  slav- 
ery exists  in  several  of  his  provinces,  and  includes  a  great 


SEC.  iv.]  METAYER  RENTS.  79 

number  of  his  subjects,  and  lamenting  that  he  is  not  rich 
enough  to  ransom  them  all,  he  states  that  his  respect  for  the 
rights  of  property  will  not  allow  him  to  interfere  between 
them  and  their  owners,  but  he  expresses  a  hope  that  his  ex- 
ample and  the  love  of  humanity  so  peculiar  to  the  French 
people,  would  lead  under  his  reign  to  the  entire  emancipa- 
tion of  all  his  subjects.1 

To  return  however  to  our  immediate  object,  the  metayer 
tenantry.  In  spite  of  the  cultivation  by  vassals  and  serfs, 
and  that  at  one  time  doubtless  to  a  very  considerable  extent, 
the  metayers  had  in  their  possession  before  the  revolution 
four-sevenths  of  the  surface  of  France.2  Another  one-sixth 
or  one-seventh  was  in  the  possession  of  capitalists  find- 
ing their  own  stock  and  paying  money-rents.3  The  re- 
mainder was  held  by  the  proprietors,  or  by  serf  or  feudal 
tenantry. 

The  terms  on  which  the  French  metayers  held  their  farms, 
differed  much  from  age  to  age  :  these  variations  do  not 
immediately  strike  the  eye  of  an  observer,  because  the 
nominal  rent,  and  nominal  share  of  the  tenant,  have  changed 
but  little,  and  the  metayer  still  very  generally  takes  that  por- 
tion of  the  produce,  viz.  the  half,  from  which  his  original 
name  of  medietarius  was  derived.  But  while  the  metayer 
tenant  pays  nominally  the  same  rent,  his  own  share  of  the 
produce  may  be  diminished  in  two  modes  :  by  his  being 
subjected  to  a  greater  quantity  of  the  public  burthens  :  or 

1  For  this  edict,  see  Diet,  des  Finances,  at  the  word  Mainmorte. 

2  This  is  the  calculation  of  Dupres  St.  Maur,  sanctioned  by  Turgot. 
Adam  Smith  states  five-sixths.    Turgot,  Vol.  VI.  p.  209.     Smith,  Vol.  II. 
p.  92.    Edition  of  1812.    Arthur  Young  thinks  seven-eighths,  Vol.  I.  p.  403. 

3  Arthur  Young,  Vol.  I.  p.  402. 


80  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  in. 

by  the  size  of  his  metairie  being  reduced.  By  this  second 
mode  of  reduction,  I  am  not  aware  that  the  French  metayer 
suffered  much :  fifty  acres  was  not  an  unusual  size  for  a 
metairie ;  in  poor  districts  they  comprised  a  much  larger 
quantity  of  land.1 

By  the  first  mode  of  reducing  his  share  of  the  produce, 
that  is,  by  the  increase  of  the  public  burthens  which  he  had 
to  bear,  the  metayer  suffered  to  an  extent,  fatal  both  to  his 
own  comforts  and  to  the  prosperity  of  agriculture;  a  cir- 
cumstance, which  had  a  great  share  in  converting  the 
peasantry  into  those  reckless  instruments  of  mischief,  which 
they  proved  in  many  instances  to  be,  during  the  revolution. 

The  Taille  was  an  imposition  which  the  French  antiquaries 
think  they  can  trace  to  the  age  of  the  Emperor  Augustus  ;2  we 
know  that  it  was  levied  by  the  barons  on  their  vassals  during 
the  ages  of  feudal  anarchy ;  by  the  sovereign  as  sovereign,  that 
is  beyond  the  limits  of  his  own  domains,  as  early  as  1325  : 
that  it  became  under  Charles  VIL,  in  1444,  an  annual  tax, 
and  continued  afterwards  to  be  the  main  branch  of  the 
revenue  of  the  kingdom.3  It  was  meant  to  be  levied  ac- 
cording to  the  means  of  the  contributor,  and  was  extremely 
defective  both  in  its  principle  and  mode  of  imposition ;  but 
even  these  defects  would  not,  perhaps,  have  made  it  in- 
tolerable, had  it  not  been  for  its  gradually  increasing  amount, 

1  Arthur  Young  however,  it  is  right  to  mention,  came  to  a  different  con- 
clusion.    "  The  division  of  farms,"  he  says,  "  and  the  population  is  so  great 
that  the  misery  flowing  from  it  is  in  some  places  extreme."    Vol.  I.  p.  404. 
He  gives  some  instances :  but  it  may  be  questioned  whether  these  were  not 
small  proprietors  or  feudal  tenants. 

2  Diet,  des  Finances.    Discours  Preliminaires,  Part  VII.  and  Tom.  III. 

P-  637. 

3  Diet,  des  Finances,  Tom.  III.  p.  638-639. 


SEC.  iv.]  METAYER  RENTS.  81 

which  at  last  almost  absorbed  the  daily  bread  of  the  peasant. 
It  would  have  been  well  for  these  poor  people  had  that 
proved  true  in  their  case,  which  has  lately  been  promulgated 
with  great  confidence  as  an  universal  truth,  namely,  that 
when  once  certain  habits  of  life  are  established  among  a 
population,  a  diminution  of  their  means  of  subsistence  is 
followed  invariably  by  a  slackened  rate  of  the  increase  of 
their  numbers,  and  a  consequent  rise  of  wages,  which  re- 
stores them  to  their  former  position.  Theirs  was  a  different 
lot.  As  the  command  of  the  French  peasants  over  the 
means  of  existence  became  less,  their  habits  altered,  but 
their  numbers  did  not  decrease ;  some  one  was  always  found 
ready  to  occupy  a  metairie,  "  parceque,  (says  M.  Destutt  de 
Tracy,  in  describing  their  misery)  il  y  a  toujours  des  mal- 
heureux  qui  ne  savent  que  devenir." 

The  mode  in  which  the  taille  gradually  produced  the 
degradation  of  the  peasantry,  is  feelingly,  and,  no  doubt, 
accurately  described  by  Turgot,1  in  his  correspondence  with 
the  ministers,  while  intendant  of  the  Limosin. 

After  remarking,  that  while  the  cultivator  really  received 
half  his  produce,  he  had  the  means  of  becoming  gradually 
a  small  capitalist,  and  ultimately  of  providing  the  stock  and 
paying  a  money-rent,  he  observes,  that  if  the  tax  had  from 
its  origin  been  laid  on  the  landholders,  this  natural  progress 
of  events  would  not  have  been  deranged,  and  would  have 
procured  to  the  owner  the  enjoyment  of  his  revenue,  with- 
out any  care  on  his  part :  but  that  the  taille  was  at  first  a 

1  By  Vauban  in  the  Dixme  Royal,  and  in  the  Detail  de  la  France,  with 
more  detail  and  animation;  but  these  descriptions  are  less  exclusively 
applicable  to  the  Metayer  peasantry  than  Turgot's. 


82  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  m. 

species  of  poll-tax,  and  very  light,  from  which  the  nobles 
were  exempt :  that  as  the  tax  increased,  it  became  neces- 
sary to  levy  it  in  proportion  to  the  means  of  the  cultivators, 
which  were  calculated  according  to  the  extent  of  their 
occupations,  a  method  by  which  the  privilege  of  the  nobles 
was  eluded  :  that  while  the  imposition  was  moderate,  the 
metayer  paid  it  by  retrenching  his  comforts ;  but  that  the 
tax  increasing  constantly,  the  portion  of  the  cultivator  was 
so  much  diminished,  that  at  last  he  was  reduced  to  the  most 
profound  misery.  These  reflexions,  he  says,  explain  how  it 
came  to  be  possible,  that  the  cultivators  should  be  plunged 
into  the  excess  of  misery  in  which  they  then  existed  in  the 
Limosin  and  Angoumois,  and  perhaps  in  other  provinces  of 
"  petite  culture."  That  misery  he  declares  is  such,  that  on 
the  greater  part  of  the  domains,  the  cultivators  had  not, 
after  paying  their  taxes,  more  than  from  25  to  30  livres  to 
spend  annually  for  each  person,  (not  in  money,  but  reckon- 
ing the  value  of  all  that  they  consumed  in  kind)  ;  often  they 
had  less,  and  when  they  could  subsist  no  longer,  the  proprie- 
tor was  obliged  to  contribute  to  their  maintenance.  Some 
proprietors,  he  adds,  had  been  at  last  forced  to  perceive, 
that  their  pretended  exemption  had  been  much  more 
mischievous  than  useful  to  them ;  and  that  an  imposition 
which  had  entirely  ruined  their  cultivators,  had  fallen  back 
wholly  on  themselves.  But  the  illusions  of  self-interest  ill 
understood,  supported  by  vanity,  had  long  maintained  their 
ground,  and  were  only  dissipated  when  things  were  carried 
to  such  an  excess,  that  the  proprietors  would  have  found  no 
one  to  cultivate  their  lands,  if  they  had  not  consented  to 
contribute  with  the  metayers  to  the  payment  of  a  part  of 


SEC.  iv.]  METAYER  RENTS.  83 

the  imposition.  That  custom  had  begun  to  introduce  itself 
into  some  parts  of  the  Limosin,  but  had  not  extended  itself 
much  :  the  proprietor  yielded  to  such  an  arrangement  only, 
when  he  could  find  no  metayer  without  it ;  and  even  in  that 
case  the  metayer  was  always  reduced  to  what  was  strictly 
necessary 1  to  prevent  his  dying  from  hunger. 

The  tax  evidently  did  not  begin  to  move  from  the 
shoulders  of  the  laborer  to  those  of  the  employer,  till  the 
first  had  been  gradually  reduced  to  the  minimum  of  sub- 
sistence, and  then  only  moved  to  such  an  extent  as  was 
necessary  to  preserve  to  him  that  minimum. 

The  revolution  converted  many  of  these  metayers  into 
small  proprietors,  but  they  still  abound  in  France ;  and 
their  condition  seems  to  have  altered  for  the  better,  less  than 
might  have  been  expected  from  the  changes  which  have 
taken  place  in  the  system  of  taxation.  Mr.  Destutt  de  Tracy, 
a  member  of  the  Institute,  and  peer  of  France  under  the 
Emperor,  who  states  himself  to  have  been  for  40  years 
proprietor  of  a  domain  farmed  by  metayers,  gives  a  wretched 
account  of  their  condition,  and  states  that  he  is  acquainted 
with  metairies,  which  have  never,  in  the  memory  of  man, 
supplied  the  food  of  the  metayers  from  their  own  half  of 
the  produce.  As  his  description  is  the  most  authentic 
account  of  this  tenancy  as  it  exists  at  present  in  France, 
I  subjoin  it.2 

"  Us   ferment   ce   que   Ton   appelle   commune'ment   des 

1  Ainsi,  me"me  dans  ce  cas-la,  le  metayer  est  toujours  reduit  a  ce  qu'il 
faut  precisement  pour  ne  pas  mourir  de  faim.    Turgot,  Tom.  IV.  p.  277. 
Memoire  presented  to  the  Council,  (Euvres  de   Turgot,  Tom.  IV.  p.  271, 
272,  274,  275, 

2  Destutt  de  Tracy,  Traite  d' Economic  Politique,  p.  116. 


84  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  in. 

domaines  ou  des  metairies,  et  ils  y  attachent  frequemment 
autant  et  plus  de  terres  qu'il  n'y  en  a  dans  les  grandes 
fermes,  surtout  si  Ton  ne  de"daigne  pas  de  mettre  en  ligne  de 
compte  les  terres  vagues,  qui  ordinairement  ne  sont  pas 
rares  dans  ces  pays,  et  qui  ne  sont  pas  tout-a-fait  sans  utilite", 
puisqu'  on  s'en  sert  pour  le  pacage,  ou  meme  pour  y 
faire  de  temps  en  temps  quelques  emblavures  afm  de 
laisser  reposer  les  champs  plus  habituellement  cultiv£s. 


"  Le  proprie"taire  est  done  reduit  a  les  garnir  lui-meme  de 
bestiaux,  d'utensiles,  et  de  tout  ce  qui  est  necessaire  a 
1'exploitation,  et  a  y  e~tablir  une  famille  de  paysans,  qui 
n'ont  que  leur  bras,  et  avec  lesquels  il  convient  ordinaire- 
ment, au  lieu  de  leur  donner  des  gages,  de  leur  abandonner 
la  moitie"  du  produit,  pour  le  salaire  de  leurs  peines.  C'est 
de  la  qu'ils  sont  appele"s  metayers,  travailleurs  a  moitie". 
Si  la  terre  est  trop  mauvaise,  cette  moitie"  des  produits  est 
manifestement  insuffisante  pour  faire  vivre,  meme  miserable- 
ment,  le  nombre  d'hommes  necessaire  pour  la  travailler ;  ils 
s'endettent  bientot,  et  on  est  oblig£  de  les  renvoyer.  Ce- 
pendant  on  en  trouve  toujours  pour  les  remplacer,  parce 
qu'il  y  a  toujours  des  malheureux  qui  ne  savent  que  devenir. 
Ceux-la  meme  vont  ailleurs,  ou  ils  ont  souvent  le  meme 
sort.  Je  connais  de  ces  metairies,  qui  de  memoire  d'homme 
n'ont  jamais  nourri  leurs  laboreurs  au  moyen  de  leur  moitie 
de  fruits." 

It  appears  by  an  article  in  the  Foreign  Quarterly,  pub- 
lished while  these  pages  were  in  the  press,  that  in  spite  of 
the  multiplication  of  small  proprietors  since  the  revolution, 


SEC.  v.]  METAYER  RENTS.  85 

metayers  are  supposed  still  to  cultivate  one- half  of  France. 
Their  actual  condition  is  little  improved,  it  appears,  by  the 
change  which  has  taken  place  in  the  system  of  taxation,  and 
their  sufferings  are  aggravated  by  the  spread  of  a  class  of 
middle-men  (always  existing  to  some  extent)  who  without 
changing  the  terms  on  which  the  actual  cultivator  holds  the 
soil,  pays  a  money-rent  to  the  proprietor,  and  grinds  and 
oppresses  the  tenant  to  make  his  bargain  profitable.  The 
condition  of  the  French  metayers  has  been  treated  of  with 
some  fulness.  This  will  enable  us  to  review  more  rapidly 
the  same  class  of  tenantry  existing  in  other  countries,  and 
differing  from  the  French  only  in  local  peculiarities. 


SECTION  V. 
On  Metayer  Rents  in  Italy. 

THE  decline  of  the  power  of  the  Roman  and  Byzantine 
Emperors  in  Italy  was  gradual  and  slow ;  the  shade  of  her 
great  name  seemed  to  suspend  a  shield  for  a  time  before 
the  precincts  of  the  ancient  capital.  Both  the  language  and 
the  history  of  the  Italians  indicate,  that  the  alterations  in  the 
habits  and  in  the  mechanism  of  society,  produced  in  the  orig- 
inal seats  of  the  empire  by  the  final  change  of  masters  and 
intermixture  of  races,  were  much  less  violent  and  general 
than  those  which  took  place  in  the  distant  provinces.  From 
many  districts  of  Italy  it  is  probable  that  the  coloni  medie- 
tarii  never  disappeared,  and  that  the  peasants  who  now  cul- 
tivate the  soil  have  succeeded  to  them  in  an  unbroken  line. 
The  large  grazing  farms  of  Lombard^,  the  tracts  of  the  Cam- 


86  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  in. 

pagna,  the  maremnae  which  occur  on  the  coast,  are  occupied 
by  capitalists ;  for  wherever  large  herds  of  cattle  are  to  be 
maintained,  neither  the  peasant  nor  the  landlords  are  able 
to  supply  them.  But  in  spite  of  these,  and  perhaps  other 
exceptions,  Italy,  from  the  Alps  to  Calabria,  is  still  covered 
with  metayers.1  The  metairies  of  Italy  are  less  than  those 
of  France.  Their  extent  will  every  where  be  governed  by 
what  the  landlord  supposes  to  be  his  interest :  if  it  is  an 
object  with  him  that  his  estates  should  not  have  fewer  hands 
than  are  equal  to  its  complete  cultivation,  so  it  is  an  object 
with  him,  that  it  should  not  have  more.  The  number  of 
acres  which  a  metayer  and  his  family  can  manage,  must  de- 
pend much  on  the  course  of  crops  and  mode  of  tillage.  In 
France  the  system  of  cropping,  once  universal  in  Northern 
Europe,  still  prevails  extensively ;  that  is,  corn  crops  while 
the  land  can  bear  them,  and  then  fallows,  or  leys  of  some 
years  standing,  with  some  waste  ground  for  pasture.  On 
such  a  plan  a  family  require  and  can  manage  a  considerable 
tract.  In  Italy  the  rotation  of  crops  practised  by  the  Ro- 
mans is  still  carried  on;  the  legumina  recommended  by 
Virgil  are  extensively  cultivated,  and  the  cattle  are  often  fed 
from  the  produce  of  the  arable  ground.  On  such  a  system, 
a  much  smaller  quantity  of  land  will  employ  and  maintain  a 
family.  Metayers  are  always  found  ready  to  accept  a  sub- 
division. For  reasons  we  shall  have  to  explain  presently, 
those  motives  to  a  voluntary  forbearance  from  early  mar- 
riages which  affect  the  higher  classes  in  all  countries,  and 
all  classes  in  some  countries  have  rarely  much  influence  on 
a  peasantry  receiving  the  wages  of  their  labor  in  the  shape 
1  That  is,  where  the  lands  are  let :  small  proprietors  are  not  uncommon. 


SEC.  v.]  METAYER  RENTS.  87 

of  raw  produce  raised  by  themselves.  Such  are  metayers : 
their  multiplication,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  case  of  France, 
usually  goes  on  till  they  are  stopped  by  the  smallness  of  their 
maintenance,  or,  as  more  often  happens,  by  the  policy  of 
the  proprietors  refusing  to  subdivide  lands,  already  supplied 
with  labor  beyond  the  point  they  deem  most  advantageous 
to  themselves.1  The  metayer  farms  in  different  parts  of  Italy 
are  of  different  sizes ;  those  of  Tuscany  include  about  ten 
acres.  But  in  Naples  they  do  not  exceed  five,  and  the  ten- 
ants there  pay  two-thirds  of  the  produce  as  rents.  Their 
climate  and  soil  enable  them  to  do  this :  the  first  permits 
them  to  dispense  with  many  things  which  are  strictly  neces- 
saries elsewhere,  while  the  earth  with  bounteous  fertility 
produces  eight  crops  in  five  years,  in  fields  shaded  at  the 
same  time  by  a  profitable  forest  of  fruit  trees  and  vines. 
Still,  making  ample  allowance  for  these  advantages,  one- 
third  of  the  produce  of  five  acres  must  yield  a  miserable 
subsistence  to  a  peasant,  subject  all  the  while  to  the  exac- 
tions of  a  needy  government,  and  of  an  aristocracy  armed 
with  all  sorts  of  mischievous  powers  and  privileges,  and  ex- 
tremely inclined  to  abuse  them.  The  Tuscan  metayers  are 
considered  to  be  best  off,  and  near  Florence  have  a  consid- 
erable appearance  of  ease,  which  is  attributed  partly  to  the 
manufacture  of  straw  hats,  an  employment  very  general 
among  them.  But  at  a  distance  from  the  town,  their  cir- 
cumstances are  wretched ;  their  food  coarse,  bad,  and 

1  There  are,  however,  parts  of  Tuscany  where  it  is  the  custom  for  the 
eldest  son  only  to  marry,  but  no  restraints  of  this  kind  have  prevented  the 
Italian  metayers,  generally,  from  increasing  till  their  numbers  became  fully 
equal  to  the  demands  of  the  proprietors,  and  in  many  cases  really  burthen- 
some  to  agriculture.  - 


88  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  in. 

scanty ;  and  their  penury  such  as  keeps  them  in  a  state  of 
perpetual  debt  to  the  landlords  for  food  or  assistance  of 
different  kinds.1 

Mr.  Coxe,  who  some  years  since  visited  the  Valteline,  and 
Mr.  Gilly,  who  more  lately  was  among  the  Vaudois,  give  a 
miserable  account  of  the  poverty  of  the  metayers.  In  the 
provinces  of  Spain  in  which  they  most  abound,  they  are  said 
to  be  extremely  poor.  The  cultivation  of  the  Canary  Islands 
is  in  their  hands. 

In  Afghaunisthaun,  a  race  of  tenants  is  found  called  Buz- 
gurs,2  who  seem  to  differ  in  no  respect  from  the  metayers 
of  Western  Europe.  This  is  a  singular  instance  in  Asia, 
where  this  tenancy,  although  sometimes  partially  engrafted 
on  Ryot  rents,  is  perhaps  in  no  other  spot  to  be  found  ex- 
isting in  its  pure  form.  But  Afghaunisthaun  is  a  strange 
land,  in  which,  from  the  peculiarities  of  its  geographical  and 
political  condition,  fragments  of  almost  all  the  civil  institu- 
tions known  in  the  rest  of  the  world  continue  to  co-exist  in 
a  state  of  confusion  approaching  to  anarchy. 


SECTION  VI. 
Summary  of  Metayer  Rents* 

UPON  comparing  the  metayer  with  the  serf,  it  is  obvious 
that  he  has  many  advantages  :  his  being  entrusted  with  the 
whole  care  of  the  cultivation  is  a  circumstance  which  not 
only  indicates  his  superior  estimation  in  society,  but  brings 

1  Arthur  Young's  Travels  in  France  and  Italy.    See  Appendix  V. 

2  Elphinstone's  Caubul,  Vol.  I.  p.  471. 


SEC.  vi.]  METAYER  RENTS.  89 

with  it  substantial  improvements  in  his  condition :  we  have 
noticed  that  the  forced  labor  of  the  serf  supposes  some 
power  of  summary  coercion  in  the  master,  without  which, 
cultivation  could  hardly  go  on.  But  the  metayer  is  freed 
from  the  galling  superintendance  of  the  proprietor,  and  the 
terms  of  their  connection  do  not  make  such  a  summary 
power  necessary.  That,  of  the  metayers,  many  were  once 
slaves  there  can  be  little  doubt ;  they  are,  and  have  been 
for  some  ages  generally,  I  believe  universally,  freemen ;  and 
the  sovereigns  of  the  different  countries  in  which  they  exist, 
have  been  able  in  most  cases  so  far  to  extend  the  power  of 
the  royal  tribunals,  as  effectually  to  secure  their  persons  and 
effects. 

Another  advantage  of  the  metayer,  which  in  practice,  it  is 
to  be  feared,  is  less  than  might  be  hoped,  is  this ;  that,  as 
the  landlord's  rent  depends  upon  the  amount  of  the  pro- 
duce, he  has  an  obvious  interest  in  preventing  the  energy  or 
the  means  of  the  tenant  from  being  lessened  by  oppression. 
A  half  starved  metayer  must  needs  be  a  bad  agent  in  a  cul- 
tivation, on  the  efficiency  of  which  the  proprietor's  revenue 
depends,  and  the  losses  of  which  he  must  share.  But  what 
Turgot  calls  "  the  illusions  of  self-interest  ill  understood,"  or 
in  plain  terms,  perhaps,  the  covetousness  and  ignorance  of 
the  proprietors,  have  prevente.d  the  tenant  from  reaping  all 
the  benefit  this  consideration  might  have  been  expected  to 
secure  to  him.  While  the  taille  in  France,  for  instance, 
could  be  extracted  from  the  tenant,  we  have  seen  that 
he  was  made  to  bear  it,  though  it  kept  him  on  the  verge 
of  starvation ;  and  in  other  countries,  either  the  too  great 
subdivision  of  the  soil,  the  increase  of  the  landlord's  pro- 


90  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  in. 

portion  of  the  produce,  or  the  saddling  the  tenant  with 
burthensome  conditions  as  to  the  taxes,  have  left  him  in  a 
state  of  great  and  helpless  depression.  Still  the  common 
interest  he  has  with  the  landlord  in  the  success  of  his  in- 
dustry is  never  wholly  without  its  effects.  When  reduced  to 
extremities,  the  tenant  has  a  patron  to  apply  to,  who  can- 
not for  his  own  sake  let  him  perish,  or  even  suffer  beyond 
a  certain  point ;  and  in  calamitous  seasons,  advances  of  food 
and  other  necessaries  by  the  landlords  are  almost  universal. 
But  if  the  relation  between  the  metayer  and  the  proprietor 
has  some  advantages  when  compared  with  that  between  the 
serf  tenant  paying  labor  rents  and  his  lord  :  it  has  also  some 
very  serious  inconveniences  peculiar  to  itself.  The  divided 
interest  which  exists  in  the  produce  of  cultivation,  mars  al- 
most every  attempt  at  improvement.  The  tenant  is  unwill- 
ing to  listen  to  the  suggestions  of  the  landlord,  the  landlord 
reluctant  to  entrust  additional  means  in  the  hands  of  a  prej- 
udiced, and  usually  very  ignorant  tenant.  The  tenant's 
dread  of  innovation  is  natural;  he  merely  exists  upon  a 
system  of  cultivation  familiar  to  him  :  the  failure  of  an  ex- 
periment might  leave  him  to  starve.  This  dread,  however, 
makes  it  almost  impossible  to  introduce  improvements  into 
the  practice  of  the  metayers.  Arthur  Young  witnessed  many 
attempts  made  by  amateur  agriculturists  on  their  own  estates  ; 
and  concludes  his  account  of  them  by  declaring,  that  with 
metayer  tenants,  the  common  system  of  the  country  must 
be  adhered  to,  be  it  good  or  bad.  While  the  tenant  is 
frightened  at  a  change  of  system,  the  landlord  hangs  back, 
with  a  hardly  less  mischievous  reluctance,  from  the  advances 
necessary  to  carry  on  efficiently  any  system  whatever. 


SEC.  vi.]  METAYER  RENTS.  91 

When  stock  is  to  be  advanced  by  one  party,  and  used  by 
another  for  their  common  benefit,  some  waste  and  careless- 
ness in  the  receiving  party,  great  jealousy  and  reluctance  in 
the  contributing  party,  follow  naturally.  The  proprietors, 
(says  Turgot,)  who  only  advance  stock  because  they  can- 
not avoid  it,  and  who  are  themselves  not  rich,  confine  their 
advances  to  what  is  most  strictly  necessary;  accordingly, 
there  is  no  comparison  to  be  made  between  the  stock  ad- 
vanced by  a  proprietor  for  the  cultivation  of  his  metairies, 
and  that  used  by  farmers  in  districts  cultivated  by  capitalists.1 
We  know,  however,  from  other  authority,  that  the  capital  to 
which  that  of  the  metayers  was  thus  decidedly  inferior,  was 
itself  extremely  scanty.2 

Where  the  proprietors  are  needy,  careless,  or  absent,  the 
case  becomes  of  course  much  worse.  "  In  bad  years,  (Tur- 
got remarks,)  the  proprietor  is  obliged  to  feed  the  metayers, 
for  fear  of  losing  all  he  has  advanced.  This  mode  of  man- 
agement requires  on  the  part  of  the  proprietor  continual  at- 
tention, and  an  habitual  residence  :  accordingly,  if  it  is  seen 
that  the  affairs  of  a  proprietor  are  in  the  smallest  degree  de- 
ranged, or  if  he  is  obliged  from  any  cause  to  absent  himself, 
his  metairies  cease  to  produce  him  any  thing.  The  estates 
of  widows  and  minors  usually  relapse  into  waste."3  When 
we  remember  the  number  of  proprietors  who  were  neces- 
sarily absent  from  military  duties  or  other  causes,  and  add 
them  to  the  widows,  and  minors,  and  persons  whose  affairs 
were  deranged,  the  list  of  estates  either  very  badly  culti- 
vated, or  not  cultivated  at  all,  will  appear  formidable  indeed, 

l  (Euvres  de  Turgot,  Tom.  IV.  p.  267.  2  Arthur  Young. 

8  Turgot,  Tom.  VI.  p.  203,  204. 


92  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  in. 

and  we  are  prepared  to  hear  without  surprise  "  of  the  ex- 
hausted state  of  the  province"  and  the  "abandonment  of 
many  metairie  estates  for  want  of  cattle,  and  the  inability  of 
the  proprietors  to  provide  stock." 1 

The  causes  which,  under  the  eyes  of  Turgot,  produced 
these  effects  in  the  Limosin,  must  act  more  or  less  in  all  the 
metayer  countries  of  Europe,  and  must  produce  much  of 
the  poverty  to  be  observed  in  them. 

Metayer  rents  may  increase,  it  is  clear,  from  two  causes, 
from  an  increase  of  the  whole  produce  effected  by  the 
greater  skill  or  industry  of  the  tenant,  or  from  an  increase 
of  the  landlord's  proportion  of  the  produce,  the  amount  of 
the  produce  itself  remaining  the  same.  When  rent  increases, 
and  the  produce  remains  stationary,  the  country  at  large 
gains  nothing  by  the  increase ;  its  means  of  paying  taxes,  of 
supporting  fleets  and  armies,  are  just  what  they  were  before  : 
there  has  been  a  transfer  of  wealth,  but  no  increase  of  it ; 
but  when  metayer  rents  increase,  because  the  produce  has 
become  larger,  then  the  country  itself  is  richer  to  that  ex- 
tent; its  power  of  paying  taxes,  of  supporting  fleets  and 
armies  has  been  increased ;  there  has  been  an  increase 
of  wealth,  not  a  mere  transfer  from  one  hand  to  another  of 
what  before  existed.  Such  an  increase  of  rents  indicates 
also  another  increase  of  wealth  as  extensive,  and  more  bene- 
ficial, which  is  found  in  the  augmentation  of  the  revenues  of 
the  metayers  themselves,  whose  half  the  produce  is  aug- 
mented to  precisely  the  same  extent  as  the  landlord's. 

The  existence  of  rents  upon  the  metayer  system,  is  in  no 
degree  dependent  upon  the  existence  of  different  qualities 

1  Turgot,  Tom.  IV.  p.  302. 


SEC.  vi.]  METAYER  RENTS.  93 

of  soil  or  of  different  returns  to  the  stock  and  labor  em- 
ployed. The  landlords  of  any  country  who,  with  small 
quantities  of  stock,  have  quantities  of  land,  sufficient  to 
enable  a  body  of  peasant  laborers  to  maintain  themselves, 
would  continue  to  derive  a  revenue  as  landowners  from 
sharing  in  the  produce  of  the  industry  of  those  laborers, 
though  all  the  lands  in  the  country  were  perfectly  equal  in 
quality. 

In  metayer  countries  the  wages  of  the  main  body  of  the 
people  depend  upon  the  rent  they  pay.  The  quantity  of 
produce  being  determined  by  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  the 
extent  of  the  metairie,  and  the  skill,  industry,  and  efficiency 
of  the  metayer,  then  the  division  of  that  produce,  on  which 
division  his  wages  depend,  is  determined  by  his  contract 
with  the  landlord.  In  like  manner  the  amount  of  rent  in 
such  countries  is  determined  by  the  amount  of  wages. 
The  whole  amount  of  produce  being  decided  as  before,  the 
landlord's  share,  or  the  rent,  depends  upon  the  contract  he 
makes  with  the  laborer,  that  is,  upon  the  amount  deducted 
as  wages. 

Of  the  three  large  classes  of  peasant  rents,  metayer  rents 
prevail  the  least  extensively.  They  spread  over  a  portion  of 
the  cultivated  surface  of  the  earth  considerably  less  than  those 
in  which  labor  rents  or  ryot  rents  predominate.  But  they 
occupy  countries  which  have  long  been  the  seats  of  na- 
tions eminent  in  the  foremost  ranks  of  civilized  people,  and 
which  are  likely  for  many  ages  to  be  among  the  most  dis- 
tinguished depositaries  of  the  knowledge  and  the  arts  of 
mankind. 

These   too  are  agricultural  nations  :  that  is,  by  far  the 


94  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  in. 

greater  part  of  their  productive  population  is  employed  in 
agriculture.  The  extent  of  their  wealth  must  be  mainly  de- 
pendent, therefore,  on  the  success  of  their  agriculture,  and 
the  success  of  their  agriculture  will  be  determined  in  a  great 
degree  by  the  nature  of  the  conditions  under  which  the  land 
is  occupied,  and  by  the  character  of  their  tenantry. 

Not  only  the  wealth  of  a  nation,  but  the  composition  of 
society,  the  extent  and  the  respective  influence  of  the  differ- 
ent classes  of  which  it  consists,  are  powerfully  affected  by 
the  efficiency  of  agriculture.  The  extent  of  the  classes 
maintained  in  non-agricultural  employments  throughout  the 
world,  must  be  determined  by  the  quantity  of  food  which 
the  cultivators  produce  beyond  what  is  necessary  for  their 
own  maintenance.  The  agriculturists  of  England  for  instance 
produce  food  sufficient  to  maintain  themselves,  and  double 
their  own  numbers.  Now  the  existence  of  this  large  non- 
agricultural  population,  the  wealth  and  influence  of  its  em- 
ployers, and  of  those  persons  who  traffic  in  the  produce  of 
its  industry,  affect  in  a  very  striking  manner  the  actual  ele- 
ments of  political  power  among  the  English,  their  practical 
constitution,  and  their  national  character  and  habits.  To 
the  absence  of  such  a  body  of  non-agriculturists  and  of  the 
wealth  and  influence  which  accompany  their  existence,  we 
may  trace  many  of  the  political  phenomena  to  be  observed 
among  our  continental  neighbours.  If  the  agriculture  of  those 
neighbours  should  ever  become  so  efficient,  as  to  enable  them 
to  maintain  a  non-agricultural  population,  at  all  proportion- 
able to  our  own,  they  may  perhaps  approximate  to  a  social 
and  political  organization  similar  to  that  seen  here.  At  all 
events  they  will  have  the  means  of  doing  so.  I  am  giving, 


SEC.  vi.]  METAYER  RENTS.  95 

it  will  be  remembered,  no  opinion  on  the  desirableness  of 
such  an  approximation,  but  there  can  be  no  question  as  to 
the  striking  effects  the  change  must  produce  on  their  habits 
and  institutions,  and  on  the  amount  of  their  national  strength 
and  external  influence. 

That  no  very  marked  change  in  the  efficiency  of  agricul- 
ture, and  in  the  relative  numbers  of  agricultural  and  non- 
agricultural  population  will  take  place  in  any  nation,  while 
the  metayer  system  remains  in  full  force,  is  what  we  are 
entitled  to  assume,  from  the  view  we  have  already  taken  of 
the  inherent  faults  and  of  the  past  effects  of  that  system. 
The  actual  prevalence  of  metayer  rents  therefore,  their 
modifications,  their  gradual  progress  in  some  cases  towards 
different  forms  of  holding,  in  others,  the  sturdy  resistance 
the  system  offers  to  the  assaults  of  time  and  even  to  the 
wishes  and  the  efforts  of  those,  who  would  willingly  rid 
themselves  of  it ;  these  are  all  circumstances  to  be  studied 
carefully  by  those  who  would  discern  the  causes  of  the 
actual  state  of  some  of  the  most  interesting  countries  in 
Europe,  or  speculate  upon  the  progress  of  future  changes 
either  in  their  political  and  social  institutions,  or  in  their 
relative  strength  and  power  as  nations. 

To  these  claims  to  an  attentive  examination  we  add 
another  of  not  less  importance,  which  has  been  already 
incidentally  mentioned,  namely,  the  strict  connection  which 
metayer  rents  have  (in  common  with  the  other  systems  of 
peasant  rents)  with  the  wages  of  by  far  the  larger  portion 
of  the  industrious  population  of  countries  in  which  they 
prevail.  This  connection  brings  their  effects  into  close 
contact  with  the  comforts,  the  character  and  condition  of 


96  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  m. 

an  important  division  of  the  great  family  of  mankind,  and 
is  alone  sufficient  to  secure  to  them,  in  all  their  details 
and  variations,  the  anxious  attention  of  the  statesman  and 
practical  philanthropist. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

SECTION  I. 
On  Ryot  Rents. 

RYOT  Rents  are,  with  few  exceptions,  peculiar  to  Asia.' 
They  are  produce  rents  paid  by  a  laborer,  raising  his  own 
wages  from  the  soil,  to  the  sovereign  as  its  proprietor. 
They  are  usually  accompanied  by  a  precarious  right  on 
the  part  of  the  tenant,  to  remain  the  occupant  of  his  allot- 
ment of  land,  while  he  pays  the  rent  demanded  from  him. 
These  rents  originate  in  the  rights  of  the  sovereign,  as  sole 
proprietor  of  the  soil  of  his  dominions.  Such  rights,  we 
have  seen,  have  been  acknowledged  at  some  period  by 
most  nations.  In  Europe  they  have  disappeared  or  be- 
come nominal ;  but  the  Asiatic  sovereigns  continue  to  be, 
as  they  have  been  for  a  long  series  of  ages,  the  direct  land- 
lords of  the  peasant  tenants,  who  maintain  themselves  on 
the  soil  of  their  dominions.  Indications  present  them- 
selves occasionally,  which  would  lead  us  to  conclude  that 
in  portions  of  that  quarter  of  the  globe,  a  state  of  things 
once  existed,  under  which  the  rights  to  the  land  must  have 
been  in  a  different  state  from  that  in  which  we  see  them  : 
but  it  was  in  an  antiquity  so  remote,  as  to  baffle  all  attempts 
at  investigation.  Within  the  period  of  historical  memory, 

1  They  have  been  introduced  by  Asiatics  into  Turkey  in  Europe.    They 
exist  in  Egypt ;  and  may  perhaps  hereafter  be  traced  in  Africa. 
H  97 


98  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  iv. 

all  the  great  empires  of  Asia  have  been  overrun  by  for- 
eigners ;  and  on  their  rights  as  conquerors  the  claim  of  the 
present  sovereigns  to  the  soil  rests.  China,  India,  Persia, 
and  Asiatic  Turkey,  all  placed  at  the  outward  edge  of  the 
great  basin  of  central  Asia,  have  been  subdued  in  their 
turn  by  irruptions  of  its  tribes,  some  of  them  more  than 
once.  China  seems  even  at  this  moment  hardly  escaping 
from  the  danger  of  another  subjugation.  Wherever  these 
Scythian  invaders  have  settled,  they  have  established  a 
despotic  form  of  government,  to  which  they  have  readily 
submitted  themselves,  while  they  were  obliging  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  conquered  countries  to  submit  to  it. 

The  uniformity  of  the  political  system  adopted  by  them, 
is  a  striking  peculiarity ;  and  becomes  more  striking,  when 
seen  in  contrast  with  the  free  constitutions  established  by 
the  Germanic  hordes,  which,  in  the  western  division  of  the 
old  world,  took  possession  of  countries  more  wealthy  and 
civilized  than  their  own.  It  has  been  supposed,  that  the 
difference  may  be  traced  to  the  previous  habits  of  the 
Tartars  as  pastoral  tribes.  But  the  Germans  too  consisted 
of  pastoral  tribes,  and  the  difference  of  their  institutions 
must  be  sought  in  some  other  cause  than  this.  It  may 
be  found  perhaps,  in  a  great  measure,  in  the  different 
character  of  their  original  seats.  Amidst  the  fastnesses 
and  morasses  of  his  native  woods,  the  German,  when  not 
actually  at  war,  was  in  tolerable  security;  his  habits  of 
military  obedience,  we  know,  relaxed,  and  he  enjoyed  that 
rude  and  indolent  freedom,  which  the  warlike  barbarian 
never  relinquished  but  from  necessity.  Some  of  the  tribes 
of  the  Affghans  exhibit  remarkable  instances  of  the  different 


SEC.  I.]  RYOT  RENTS.  99 

degrees  of  submission  to  authority,  produced  among  pas- 
toral nations  under  the  prevalence  of  the  different  feelings 
of  security,  or  of  peril.  They  are  only  slowly  and  partially 
abandoning  migratory  habits  :  during  part  of  the  year  they 
are  stationary,  in  a  country  in  which  they  feel  secure ;  in 
another  part  of  the  year  they  move  to  distant  pastures. 
While  safe  and  tranquil,  their  institutions  are  as  free  as 
those  of  the  ancient  Germans,  and  in  many  points  of  detail 
resemble  them  with  remarkable  closeness.  When  they 
begin  to  move,  and  the  approach  of  danger  and  the  neces- 
sity of  united  exertion  begin  to  be  felt,  they  pass  at  once 
to  a  despotic  form  of  government :  a  Khan,  whose  author- 
ity, while  they  are  stationary  and  safe,  is  disclaimed,  is  at 
once  invested  with  supreme  power;  and  so  helpless  do 
they  feel  without  him,  that  when  from  private  views  he 
has  wished  to  remain  at  court,  or  employ  himself  else- 
where, he  has  been  recalled  by  their  clamor,  to  receive 
their  submission,  and  to  put  himself  at  their  head.1  But 

1  Elphinstone's  Caubul,  Vol.  II.  p.  215.  When  the  people  are  collected 
into  camps,  they  are  governed  by  their  own  Mooshirs,  without  any  refer- 
ence to  the  Khaun,  and  when  they  are  scattered  over  the  country,  they  sub- 
sist without  any  government  at  all :  but  when  a  march  is  contemplated,  they 
immediately  submit  to  the  Khaun,  and  where  they  have  to  pass  an  enemy's 
country,  he  is  appointed  head  of  the  Chelwashtees,  assumes  an  absolute 
authority,  and  becomes  an  object  of  respect  and  anxiety  to  all  the  tribe.  A 
proof  of  the  importance  of  the  Khaun  during  a  march,  is  shewn  by  the  con- 
duct of  the  Nausser  at  one  time,  when  Junus  Khan,  their  present  chief, 
refused  to  accompany  them  in  one  of  their  migrations.  He  was  anxious  to 
remain  in  Damaun  with  200  or  300  of  his  relations,  to  assist  Surwur  Khaun 
against  the  Vizeerees ;  but  rris  resolution  occasioned  great  distress  in  the 
tribe,  who  declared  it  was  impossible  to  march  without  their  Khaun.  So 
earnest  were  their  representations,  that  Junus  was  at  last  compelled  to 
abandon  his  former  design,  and  to  accompany  them  on  their  march  to 
Khorassaun. 


100  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  iv. 

the  Tartars  of  central  Asia  inhabit  vast  plains,  traversed 
in  every  direction  by  mounted  enemies.  The  task  of 
guarding  their  property  and  lives,  is  a  constant  campaign ; 
and  their  habits  of  military  submission  have  no  intervals 
of  relaxation :  they  are  born,  and  they  die  in  them.  It 
is  possible  that  when  they  became  masters  of  the  fair 
empires  of  exterior  Asia,  they  found  already  established, 
in  some  instances,  the  right  of  the  sovereign  to  the  soil; 
not  as  a  remote  or  nominal  superior,  but  as  the  actual  and 
direct  proprietor.  Such  a  right  may  have  been  a  relic  of 
former  conquests,  or  in  some  remoter  instances,  the  growth 
of  circumstances,  similar  to  those  which  induced  the  natives 
of  Africa,  Peru,  or  New  Zealand  to  acknowledge,  on  apply- 
ing themselves  to  agriculture,  the  right  of  their  sovereigns 
to  dispose  of  the  territory  which  the  nation  occupied. 
However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  the  Tartars  have 
every  where  either  adopted  or  established  a  political  system, 
which  unites  so  readily  with  their  national  habits  of  sub- 
mission in  the  people,  and  absolute  power  in  the  chiefs  : 
and  their  conquests  have  either  introduced  or  re-established 
it,  from  the  Black  Sea  to  the  Pacific,  from  Pekin  to  the 
Nerbudda.  Throughout  agricultural  Asia,  (with  the  excep- 
tion of  Russia,)  the  same  system  prevails.  There  are 
neither  capital  nor  capitalists  able  to  produce,  from  stores 
already  accumulated,  the  maintenance  of  the  bulk  of  the 
people.  The  peasant  must  have  land  to  till  or  must  starve. 
The  body  of  the  nation  is  therefore  in  every  case  dependent 
upon  the  great  sovereign  proprietor  for  the  means  of  obtain- 
ing food.  Of  the  remainder  of  the  people,  the  most 
important  part  is,  if  possible,  more  dependent:  they  live 


SEC.  ii.]  RYOT  .RENTS.  iOl 

in  the  character  of  soldiers  or  civilians,  on  a  portion  of 
the  revenue  collected  from  the  peasants,  assigned  to  them 
by  the  bounty  of  their  chief :  intermediate  and  independent 
classes  there  are  none;  and  great  and  little  are  literally 
what  they  describe  themselves  to  be,  the  slaves  of  that 
master  on  whose  pleasure  the  means  of  their  subsistence 
wholly  depend.  The  experience  of  many  long  centuries 
of  monotonous  oppression  has  sufficiently  proved  the  ten- 
dency of  such  a  state  of  things,  once  established,  to  per- 
petuate the  despotism  it  creates. 

Although  a  similar  system  prevails  in  all  the  great 
empires  of  Asia,  it  presents  itself  with  distinct  modifica- 
tions in  each ;  arising  from  differences  in  the  climate,  soil, 
and  even  government;  for  despotism  itself  has -its  varieties. 
Of  these  modifications  a  very  slight  sketch  must  suffice 
here. 


SECTION   II. 
On  Ryot  Rents  in  India. 

IT  seems  probable,  that  the  ancient  Egyptians,  and  the 
Indian  worshippers  of  the  Brahminical  idols  had  a  common 
origin,  but  whence  they  came,  or  in  what  state  of  things 
their  peculiar  institutions  originated,  can  only  be  dimly 
conjectured.  In  India,  ryot  rents  have  subsisted  since  the 
invasion  of  the  people  whom  the  Brahmins  led,  or  accom- 
panied ;  perhaps  longer.  The  sacred  books  of  the  Hindoos 
found  the  claims  of  the  sovereigns  to  the  land  on  the  rights 
of  conquest. 


10?.  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  iv. 

"  By  conquest,  the  earth  became  the  property  of  the  holy 
Parasa  Rama ;  by  gift  the  property  of  the  Sage  Casyapa ; 
and  was  committed  by  him  to  Cshatriyas  (the  military  cast) 
for  the  sake  of  protection,  because  of  their  protective 
property ;  successively  held  by  powerful  conquerors,  and 
not  by  subjects  cultivating  the  soil.  But  annual  property 
is  acquired  by  subjects,  on  payment  of  annual  revenue, 
and  the  king  cannot  lawfully  give,  sell,  or  dispose  of  the 
land  to  another  for  that  year.  But  if  the  agreement  be 
in  this  form,  'You  shall  enjoy  it  for  years,'  for  so  many 
years  as  the  property  is  granted,  during  so  many  years  the 
king  should  never  give,  sell,  or  dispose  of  it  to  another,  yet 
if  the  subject  pay  not  the  revenue,  the  grant  being  con- 
ditional, is  annulled  by  the  breach  of  the  condition.  But 
if  no  special  agreement  be  made,  and  another  person 
desirous  of  obtaining  the  land,  stipulate  a  greater  revenue, 
it  may  be  granted  to  him  on  his  application."  l 

With  the  spirit  and  letter  of  this  often  quoted  law,  the 
practice  of  the  various  sovereigns  of  India,  native  and  for- 
eign, has  very  accurately  corresponded.  Those  subordinate 
rights  of  the  people  to  temporary  possession  which  have 
grown  up  in  peaceful  times,  have  ever  remained  precarious 
and  imperfect :  but  the  right  of  the  ruler  is  the  right  of  the 
strongest;  and  when  either  intestine  wars  or  foreign  in- 
vasion have  brought  a  new  master  to  a  district,  his  sword 
has  restored  the  sovereign's  claim  in  all  its  primitive  clear- 
ness. 

The  proportion  of  the  produce  taken  by  the  sovereign, 
has  on  some  ground  or  other  perpetually  varied ;  that  is, 

1  Colebroke's  Dig.  of  Hindoo  Law,  Vol.  I.  p.  460. 


SEC.  ii.]  RYOT  RENTS.  103 

when  he  has  pretended  to  confine  himself  to  any  definite 
proportion  at  all.  The  laws  seem  to  fix  it  at  one-sixth,  but 
in  practice,  this  law  or  rule  has  been  utterly  disregarded. 
Strabo  mentions,  that  in  his  time,  eo-riv  y  \<*>pa  60.0-1X1*77 
7ra<ra,  fJiiorOov  8'  avrrjv  €?rt  Teraprats  epya^oi/rat  TWV  KapTroiv, 
where  by  straining  the  Greek  a  little  either  way,  the  rent 
may  appear  to  have  been  one-fourth  or  three-fourths  of 
the  produce.  The  Mogul  conquerors  exacted  their  rents 
in  proportions,  which  varied  considerably  with  the  quality 
of  the  land,  more  particularly  with  its  command  of  water. 
But  no  definite  rate  of  rent  has  ever  prevailed  long  in 
practice. 

Under  the  Hindoo  governments,  there  had  been  a  dis- 
position to  allow  many  subordinate  claims  to  the  posses- 
sion of  the  soil,  and  to  offices  connected  with  the  collection 
of  the  revenue,  to  become  hereditary.  Of  the  offices,  the 
most  important  was  that  of  the  Zemindars.  These  were 
entrusted  with  the  collection  of  the  revenue  in  districts 
of  different  sizes,  were  entitled  to  a  tenth  of  its  amount, 
had  sometimes  lands  assigned  to  them,  and  were  endowed 
with  very  considerable  authority.  They  were  much  in  the 
habit  of  making  advances  of  seed  and  stock  to  assist  the 
cultivator,  and  of  stipulating  for  repayment  in  the  shape 
of  produce.  When  the  son  had  been  allowed  to  succeed 
the  father  for  some  generations  in  such  an  office,  the  ties 
and  interests  which  connected  him  with  the  people  under 
him  were  so  many  and  strong,  that  the  displacing  a  Zem- 
indar, unless  for  gross  misconduct  or  for  failure  in  pay- 
ment of  the  sovereign's  rent,  was  thought  by  himself  and  the 
ryots,  to  be  an  act  of  tyrannical  oppression.  The  ryots 


104  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  iv. 

very  generally  occupied  their  lands  in  common,  and  were 
collected  into  villages  under  officers  of  their  own,  who  dis- 
tributed to  the  cultivators  and  tradesmen  their  respective 
shares  of  the  produce.  The  village  offices  and  various 
trades  became  hereditary.  The  ryot  too  himself,  the  actual 
cultivator,  was  yet  less  likely  than  the  superior  officers  to  be 
disturbed  in  the  possession  of  his  lands.  Provided  the 
sovereign's  share  of  the  produce  was  paid,  he  had  no 
interest  in  disturbing  the  humble  agents  of  production, 
and  a  very  great  interest  in  retaining  them.  From  similar 
reasons,  a  claim  to  mortgage  or  sell  his  possessory  interest, 
was  suffered  to  establish  itself. 

But  then  all  these  subordinate  interests  were  only  re- 
spected in  peaceful  times,  and  under  moderate  governors ; 
and  these  were  rare  in  India.  It  has  been  hitherto  the 
misfortune  of  that  country,  to  see  a  rapid  succession  of 
short  lived  empires :  the  convulsions  amidst  which  they 
were  established,  have  hardly  subsided,  before  the  people 
have  begun  to  be  harassed  by  the  consequences  of  their 
weakness  and  decay.  While  any  really  efficient  general 
government  has  "existed,  it  has  been  the  obvious  interest, 
and  usually  the  aim  of  the  chiefs  to  act  upon  some  definite 
system ;  to  put  some  limit  to  their  own  exactions ;  to  pro- 
tect the  ryots,  and  foster  cultivation  by  giving  reasonable 
security  to  all  the  interests  concerned  in  it.  The  Mogul 
emperors  acted  in  this  spirit,  while  exercising  a  power 
over  the  soil,  which  had  no  real  bounds,  but  those  which 
they  prescribed  to  themselves.  But  as  the  empire  grew 
feeble,  and  the  subordinate  chieftains,  Mahometan,  or 
Hindoo,  began  to  exercise  an  uncontrolled  power  in  their 


SEC.  IL]  RYOT  RENTS.  105 

districts,  their  rapacity  and  violence  seem  usually  to  have 
been  wholly  unchecked  by  policy  or  principle.  There  was 
at  once  an  end  to  all  system,  moderation,  or  protection; 
ruinous  rents,  arbitrarily  imposed,  were  collected  in  fre- 
quent military  circuits,  at  the  spear's  point ;  and  the  resis- 
tance often  attempted  in  despair,  ,was  unsparingly  punished 
by  fire  and  slaughter. 

Scenes  like  these,  in  the  ancient  history  of  India,  have 
been  frequently  renewed,  and  succeeded  rapidly  short  in- 
tervals of  repose.  They  were  of  course  disastrous.  Half 
the  rich  territory  of  that  country  has  never  been  cultivated, 
though  swarming  with  a  population  to  whom  the  permission 
to  make  it  fruitful  in  moderate  security,  would  have  been 
happiness;  and  nothing  can  well  exceed  the  ordinary 
poverty  of  the  ryots,  and  the  inefficiency  of  .their  means 
of  cultivation. 

The  English,  when  they  became  the  representatives  of  the 
Mogul  emperor  in  Bengal,  began  by  pushing  to  an  extreme 
their  rights  as  proprietors  of  the  soil ;  and  neglected  the 
subordinate  claims  of  the  Zemindars  and  ryots,  in  a  manner 
which  was  felt  to  be  oppressive  and  tyrannical,  although  not 
perhaps  in  strictness  illegal.  A  great  reaction  has  taken 
place  in  their  views  and  feelings ;  perceiving  the  necessity 
of  restoring  confidence  to  the  cultivators,  and  anxious  to 
shake  off  the  imputation  of  injustice  and  tyranny,  they 
showed  themselves  quite  willing  to  part  with  their  char- 
acter of  owners  of  the  soil,  and  to  retain  simply  that  of  its 
sovereign.  An  agreement  was  in  consequence  entered  into, 
by  which  the  Zemindars  assumed  a  character,  which  certainly 
never  before  belonged  to  them,  that  of  the  direct  landlords 


106  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  iv. 

of  those  ryots,  between  whom  and  the  supreme  government 
they  had  before  been  only  agents;  agents,  however,  pos- 
sessed of  many  imperfect  but  prescriptive  rights  to  an 
hereditary  interest  in  their  office.  The  government,  in- 
stead of  exacting  rents,  was  content  to  receive  a  fixed  and 
permanent  tax;  for  which  the  new  landlords  were  to  be 
responsible. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  fair  and  even  benevolent 
spirit,  in  which  this  arrangement  was  made.  It  seems  how- 
ever to  be  now  generally  admitted,  that  the  claims  of  the 
Zemindars  were  overrated,  and  that  if  something  less  had 
been  done  for  them,  and  something  more  for  the  security 
and  independence  of  the  ryots,  the  settlement,  without 
being  less  just  or  generous,  would  have  been  much  more 
expedient.1 


SECTION  III. 
On  Ryot  Rents  in  Persia. 

OF  all  the  despotic  governments  of  the  east,  that  of  Persia 
is  perhaps  the  most  greedy,  and  the  most  wantonly  unprinci- 
pled ;  yet  the  peculiar  soil  of  that  country  has  introduced 
some  valuable  modifications  of  the  general  Asiatic  system  of 
ryot  rents,  and  forced  the  government,  unscrupulous  as  it  is, 
to  treat  the  various  interests  in  the  land  subordinate  to  those 
of  the  crown,  with  considerable  forbearance. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  geological  features  of  the  old 
world,  is  that  great  tract  of  sandy  desert,  which,  extends 

1  See  note  on  Ryot  Rents  in  Appendix  VI. 


SEC.  in.]  RYOT  RENTS.  107 

across  its  whole  breadth,  and  imposes  a  peculiar  character 
on  the  tribes  which  roam  over  its  surface,  or  inhabit  its 
borders.  It  forms  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  on  the  western 
coast  of  Africa,  and  constitutes  the  Zahara  or  great  sandy 
desert,  which  has  contributed  to  conceal  so  long  the  central 
regions  of  that  quarter  of  the  globe  from  European  curiosity. 
It  forms  next  the  surface  of  Egypt  with  the  exception  of  the 
valley  of  the  Nile ;  stretches  across  the  Arabian  wastes,  to 
Syria,  Persia,  and  upper  India;  and  turning  from  Persia 
northwards,  threads  between  Mushed  and  Herat *  the  Elburz 
and  Parapomisan  mountains,  parts  of  the  Caucasian  or 
Himalayan  chain ;  runs  north-eastward  through  Tartary,  and 
rounding  the  northern  extremity  of  China,  sinks  finally,  it  is 
supposed,  beneath  the  waves  of  the  Pacific.  The  greater 
part  of  the  territories  of  Persia  either  consist  of  this  desert, 
or  border  on  it ;  and  partake  so  much  of  its  parched  and 
sterile  character,  that  the  eye  at  a  short  distance  can  hardly 
trace  the  boundary.  This  soil  can  be  made  fruitful  only  by 
irrigation.  But  water,  says  Frazer,  is  the  most  scanty  boon 
of  nature  in  Persia ;  its  rivers  are  small  and  few,  and  rivulets, 
by  no  means  common,  can  only  be  applied  to  a  very  limited 
quantity  of  cultivation.  In  the  best  districts,  the  small  pro- 
portion of  cultivated  land  resembles  an  Oasis  in  the  desert, 
serving  by  contrast  to  make  all  around  it  more  dreary. 

As  the  natural  springs  and  streams  are  insufficient  to 
support  the  cultivation  by  which  the  people  must  exist,  the 
Persians  establish  with  great  labor  and  expense  artificial 
sources,  called  cannauts.  They  sink  on  the  sides  of  hills 

1  For  the  course  of  these  sands  on  the  confines  of  Persia  and  Tartary, 
see  Frazer's  Khorassan,  p.  253. 


108  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  iv. 

long  chains  of  wells,  of  different  depths,  and  communicating 
by  a  channel,  which  conducts  to  the  lowest  the  water  col- 
lected in  them  :  thence  the  stream  is  distributed  over  the  fields 
which  it  is  to  fertilize.  These  works,  always  costly  and 
important,  are  of  various  sizes  ;  the  chain  of  wells  is  said  to 
be  occasionally  thirty-six  miles  in  length,  and  a  cannaut  is 
spoken  of  in  Khorassan,  into  which  a  horseman  may  ride 
with  his  lance  upon  his  shoulder ; l  more  ordinarily,  the 
channels  are  small,  and  the  chain  of  wells  does  not  exceed 
two  miles  in  length.  Whenever,  by  these  or  other  means, 
water  is  brought  to  the  surface,  scenes  of  oriental  vegetation 
spring  up  rapidly  and  luxuriantly.  If  from  war,  or  oppres- 
sion, or  accident,  or  time,  the  works  of  man  are  destroyed 
or  neglected,  the  scene  of  fertility  vanishes,  and  the  desert 
resumes  its  domain.  The  plain  of  Yezid-Khaust  in  the  route 
from  Shiraz  to  Teheran,  was  once  celebrated  for  its  beauty 
and  fertility:  Mr.  Frazer  passed  over  it  in  1821,  and  thus 
describes  it.  "  The  plain  of  Yezid-Khaust,  which  extends  in 

1  This  perhaps  is  a  fable,  but  the  cannauts  must  sometimes  discharge 
very  considerable  bodies  of  water,  Mr.  Frazer,  who  first  met  with  them 
at  Kauzeroon,  says:  The  cannauts  or  subterranean  canals  have  frequently 
been  described,  and  constitute  almost  the  only  species  of  improvement 
requiring  outlay,  still  carried  on  in  Persia:  because  the  property  thus 
acquired  is  protected,  and  the  profit  considerable,  and  not  very  remote : 
indeed,  they  are  most  commonly  constructed  by  persons  in  authority,  who 
dispose  of  the  water  thus  brought  to  the  surface  at  very  high  rates.  Sev- 
eral new  ones  have  been  lately  made  in  the  Kauzeroon  valley,  and  some 
notion  may  be  formed  of  the  value  of  such  property,  when  it  is  understood 
that  the  small  stream  at  Dalakse  brings  in  a  revenue  of  4000  rupees  a  year; 
and  that  one  cannaut,  lately  opened  by  Kulb  Allee  Khan,  governor  of 
Kauzeroon,  affords  a  stream  at  least  five  or  six  times  more  considerable. 
Among  other  uses,  it  serves  to  irrigate  a  garden  which  contains  some  of 
the  finest  orange  trees  both  bitter  and  sweet,  shaddock,  lime,  and  pome- 
granate trees,  that  can  be  found  in  the  country.  Frazer's  Khorassan,  p.  79. 


SEC.  in.]  RYOT  RENTS.  109 

the  line  of  our  route  all  the  way  to  Komaishah,  presented, 
towards  the  latter  place,  a  truly  lamentable  picture  of  the 
general  decline  of  prosperity  in  Persia.  Ruins  of  large 
villages  thickly  scattered  about,  with  the  skeleton-like  walls 
of  caravanserais  and  gardens,  all  telling  of  better  times,  stood 
like  memento  moris  to  kingdoms  and  governments  ;  and  the 
whole  plain  was  dotted  over  with  small  mounds,  which  indi- 
cate the  course  of  cannauts,  once  the  source  of  riches  and 
fertility,  now  all  choked  up  and  dry,  for  there  is  neither  man 
nor  cultivation  to  require  their  aid."  The  district  of 
Nishapore  was  another  celebrated  seat  of  Persian  cultivation. 
"  It  was  added,"  says  Mr.  Frazer,  (speaking  of  the  informa- 
tion he  received  concerning  this  place,)  "that  in  the  dif- 
ferent departments  of  Nishapore  they  reckon  14000  distinct 
villages,  all  inhabited,  and  irrigated  by  12000  cannauts  and 
1 8  small  rivers  from  the  mountains.  This  magnificent  detail 
is  no  doubt  greatly  exaggerated,  being  but  a  reiteration  of 
the  traditional  account  of  this  place  in  its  days  of  high  pros- 
perity :  no  such  vast  population  or  cultivation  now  exists ; 
most  of  the  villages  are  ruinous ;  the  cannauts,  the  remains 
of  which,  covering  the  plain,  may  serve  almost  to  attest  the 
truth  of  the  above  statement,  are  now  choked  up  and  dry." 

Now  the  principal  revenue  of  the  monarchs  of  Persia  is 
derived  from  the  produce  of  the  earth,  of  which  they  are 
the  supreme  owners.  It  could  not  escape  even  their  eyes, 
blinded  as  they  are  by  greediness  and  habits  of  rapine,  that 
the  cost  of  thus  wresting  cultivated  spots  from  the  desert, 
and  maintaining  them  in  fruitfulness,  would  never  be  in- 
curred, unless  the  undertakers  felt  really  secure  that  their 
property  in  them  would  be  subsequently  respected.  By 


110  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  iv. 

the  laws  of  Persia,  therefore,  he  who  brings  water  to  the 
surface,  where  it  never  was  before,  is  guaranteed  by  the 
sovereign  in  the  hereditary  possession  of  the  land  fertilized 
by  him,  and  while  a  reserved  rent  of  one-fifth  of  the  produce 
is  paid  to  the  Shah,  the  possessor  disposes  of  it  as  he 
pleases,  and  is  effectually  its  proprietor,  subject  to  a  rent 
charge.  If  he  chooses  to  let  out  the  water,  at  money  rents, 
to  other  persons  who  have  lands,  which  already  pay  the 
royal  rent  in  produce,  then  the  rent  of  the  water  is  his  own  : 
the  crown  profits  only  by  additional  fertility  thus  bestowed 
upon  spots,  in  the  produce  of  which  it  shares.  Among  the 
Persians  of  property,  most  usually  those  in  office,  making 
cannauts  is  a  favorite  speculation ;  the  villagers,  too,  often 
join  and  construct  them,  and  these  are  the  best  proofs  that 
this  guarantee  of  the  sovereign  is  faithfully  observed. 

Making  proper  allowances,  however,  for  the  more  steady 
respect  for  subordinate  interests,  which  the  outlay  for  arti- 
ficial irrigation  makes  necessary  on  the  part  of  the  Persian 
sovereigns,  their  management  of  the  territory  they  own  is 
very  similar  to  what  we  have  seen  prevails  in  India.  The 
ryots  inhabiting  villages  cultivate  the  soil  in  common,  or  in 
allotments  determined  among  themselves ;  their  interest  in 
the  land  is  hereditary.  "  The  original  customary  law  con- 
cerning property,"  says  Mr.  Frazer,  "  clearly  provided  with 
much  consideration  for  the  security  of  the  ryot.  The  rights 
of  the  villager  were  guarded  at  least  as  carefully  as  these  of 
his  lord :  his  title  to  cultivate  his  portion  of  land  descends 
to  him  from  the  original  commencement  of  the  village  to 
which  he  belongs,  and  can  neither  be  disputed  or  refused 
him,  nor  can  he  forfeit  it,  nor  can  the  lord  of  the  village 


SEC.  in.]  RYOT  RENTS.  Ill 

eject  any  ryot,  while  he  conducts  himself  well  and  pays  his 
portion  of  the  rent."  1 

The  rent  at  present  exacted  from  the  ryot  is  one-fifth  part 
of  the  produce  ;  it  has  varied  and  been  differently  assessed  at 
the  discretion  of  different  Princes,  more  particularly  Nushir- 
van  and  Timour.  The  Persians  now  state  that  by  ancient 
custom  only  one-tenth  was  due  :  that  the  other  tenth  was 
agreed  to  be  paid  on  a  promise  that  the  saaduraut  or 
irregular  taxes  should  cease ;  but  that  though  the  additional 
tenth  has  been  exacted,  the  taxes  remain  at  least  as  oppres- 
sive as  before.2 

Above  these  hereditary  cultivators  is  a  subordinate  pro- 
prietor, often  called  by  Frazer  the  lord  of  the  village,  who  is 
entitled  to  one-tenth  of  the  crop.  In  this  man  the  Indian 
Zemindar  is  immediately  recognized  :  but  though  the  word 
Zemindar  was  originally  Persian,  it  does  not  appear  to  be  in 
familiar  use  in  Persia  at  present.  The  right  of  hereditary 
succession  to  this  intermediate  interest  cannot  have  been 
fully  recognized  for  any  very  long  period.  Chardin  states 
that  in  his  time  the  practice  of  taking  leases  for  99  years 
from  the  crown  was  only  beginning  to  establish  itself. 
Bernier  distinctly  denies  that  such  a  thing  as  private  prop- 
erty in  land  was  known  in  Persia.  The  interests  of  this 
class  of  men  have  naturally  gathered  strength  and  per- 
manence in  Persia,  even  more  rapidly  than  in  India,  from 
the  necessity  of  advances  for  the  purposes  of  irrigation,  which 
were  usually  made  by  them.  Their  right  to  the  tenth  of  the 
produce  seems  to  be  now  so  completely  severed  from  the 
duties  of  collection,  that  the  jealousy  of  the  Persian  mon- 
1  Frazer,  p.  208.  2  Frazer,  p.  211. 


112  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  iv. 

archs  forbids  them  sometimes  even  to  reside  in  their  villages, 
to  prevent,  it  is  said,  their  tyrannizing  over  the  ryots,1  more 
probably  to  get  rid  of  their  interference  in  resisting  the  ex- 
actions of  the  government  officers,  which  it  is  found  they  can 
do  more  effectually  than  the  ryots  themselves.2 

There  are  persons  in  Persia  who  boast,  perhaps  with  truth, 
that  these  estates,  as  they  call  them,  have  been  in  the  hands 
of  their  family  for  a  long  succession  of  years.  Did  there 
exist  a  real  body  of  landed  proprietors  in  Persia,  as  secure 
in  the  possession  of  their  heritage  as  these  men  are  in  their 
limited  interests,  the  despotism  of  the  Shah  would  at  once 
be  shackled.  But  men  entitled  to  collect  one-tenth  of 
the  produce  from  the  tenants  hereditary  like  themselves, 
while  the  great  sovereign  proprietor  is  collecting  a  fifth  at 
the  same  time,  are  little  likely  to  acquire  an  influence  in 
the  country,  sufficient  to  protect  either  the  subordinate  ryots 
or  themselves  ;  and  accordingly  the  chief  weight  of  what  is 
probably  one  of  the  worst  governments  in  the  world,  rests 
upon  the  necks  of  the  cultivators.  "There  is  no  class  of 
"  men  (says  Frazer)  whose  situation  presents  a  more  mel- 
"  ancholy  picture  of  oppression  and  tyranny  than  the  farmers 
"  and  cultivators  of  the  ground  in  Persia.  They  live  con- 
<'tinually  under  a  system  of  extortion  and  injustice,  from 
"which  they  have  no  means  of  escape,  and  which  is  the 
"  more  'distressing,  because  it  is  indefinite  both  in  form  and 
"  extent,  for  no  man  can  tell  when,  how,  or  to  what  amount 

1  Frazer,  p.  208. 

2  Frazer,  p.  390.    The  Ketkhoda  (head  man  of  the  village)  observed 
that  those  ryots  who  account  with  their  landlords,  are  better  off  than  those 
who  account  directly  to  government,  from  the  officers  of  which  the  poorer 
classes  suffer  great  extortions. 


SEC.  iv.]  RYOT  RENTS.  113 

"  demands  upon  him  may  without  warning  be  made.  It  is 
"  upon  the  farmers  and  peasantry  that  the  whole  extortion 
"  practised  in  the  country  finally  alights.  The  king  wrings 
"  from  his  ministers  and  governors ;  they  must  procure  the 
"sums  required  from  the  heads  of  districts,  who  in  their 
"  turn  demand  it  from  the  zabuts  or  ketkhodahs  of  villages, 
"  and  these  must  at  last  squeeze  it  from  the  ryots ;  each  of 
"  these  intermediate  agents  must  also  have  their  profits,  so 
"  that  the  sum  received  by  the  king  bears  small  proportion 
"  to  that  which  is  paid  by  the  ryots.  Every  tax,  every  pres- 
"  ent,  every  fine,  from  whomsoever  received  or  demanded 
"  in  the  first  instance,  ultimately  falls  on  them,  and  such  is 
"the  character  of  their  rulers,  that  the  only  measure  of 
"  these  demands  is  the  power  to  extort  on  the  one  hand, 
"  and  the  ability  to  give  or  retain  on  the  other." 1 


SECTION  IV. 
On  Ryot  Rents  in   Turkey. 

WHEN  the  Turks,  after  subduing  the  provinces  of  the 
Greek  Empire,  finally  quartered  themselves  upon  its  ruins, 
the  foundation  of  their  system  of  revenue  and  government, 
like  that  of  other  Tartar  tribes,  rested  upon  an  assumption 
that  their  leader  had  become  the  legitimate  proprietor  of 
the  conquered  soil. 

The  rent  imposed  upon  the  cultivators  appears  to  have 
been  originally  calculated  at  one-tenth  of  the  gross  produce ; 
and  the  estimated  value  of  each  district,  at  that  rate,  was  at 

1  Frazer,  p.  173. 
I 


114  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  iv. 

a  very  early  date  registered  in  the  treasury.  The  registers 
are  still  used,  in  accounting  with  the  Pachas  of  the  different 
provinces.  But  as  the  rent  paid  by  each  district  never 
varies,  whatever  changes  take  place  in  its  cultivation,  the 
decay  of  agriculture  and  population  has  loaded  many  of 
the  peasants  with  much  heavier  burthens  than  they  at  first 
bore.  One-seventh  of  the  produce  where  the  cultivator  is 
a  Turk,  one-fifth  where  he  is  a  Christian,  have  appeared  to 
later  travellers  in  Greece  to  be  about  the  average  actual 
payment  to  the  crown. 

The  violence  with  which  the  Turks  exemplified  in  practice 
their  Asiatic  notions  of  the  supreme  right  of  their  leader  to 
the  soil,  will  be  best  judged  of  by  their  next  measure. 

The  Sultan  granted  a  considerable  portion  of  his  proprie- 
tary rights  to  others,  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a  sort  of 
feudal  militia.  The  officers  of  rank  received  allotments  of 
land  called  ziamets  and  timars,  in  which  their  rights  repre- 
sent those  of  the  sovereign,  and  the  number  created  of  these 
exceeded  50,000.  The  ziamet  differed  from  the  timars 
only  in  being  larger.  For  these  grants  they  were  bound 
to  perform  military  services,  with  a  specified  number  of 
men.  Their  forces  constituted,  till  the  rise  of  the  Janissa- 
ries, the  main  force  of  the  Empire,  and  amounted  it  is  said 
to  150,000  men.  Similar  grants  are  known  in  India  by  the 
name  of  laghires,  in  Persia  by  that  of  Teecools,  but  they 
were  established  less  systematically  in  those  countries  than 
in  Turkey.  There  these  lands  have  never  become  heredi- 
tary. They  are  still  strictly  lifehold.  In  the  early  days  of 
their  institution,  use  was  made  of  them  to  excite  military 
emulation.  On  the  death  of  the  possessor,  one  of  the 


SEC.  iv.]  RYOT  RENTS.  115 

bravest  of  his  comrades  was  immediately  appointed  to  his 
estate,  and  one  timar  has  been  known  to  be  thus  granted 
eight  times  in  a  single  campaign.1  The  disposal  of  them, 
however,  has  long  become  wholly  venal.  An  Aga  not  un- 
frequently  purchases  during  his  life  the  grant  of  the  rever- 
sion to  his  family ;  but  if  he  neglects  to  do  this,  his  relatives 
are  dispossessed  at  his  death,  unless  they  outbid  all  other 
applicants.2  With  the  exception  of  these  interests  for  life, 
and  of  the  estates  vested  in  the  Ulema  or  expounders  of 
Mohammedan  law,  there  are  no  distinctly  recognized  pro- 
prietary rights  in  Turkey.  Although  there,  as  among  the 
ryots  of  India  and  Persia,  and  elsewhere  throughout  the 
east,  there  exist  claims  to  the  hereditary  possession  of 
land.  While  the  peasant  pays  to  the  Sultan,  or  to  the 
Aga  to  whose  Zaim  or  Timar  he  belongs,  the  legal  portion 
of  his  produce,  his  right  to  occupy  and  transmit  his  lands 
is  not  contested,  and  is  secure,  as  far  as  any  thing  is  secure 
there.  In  Greece  the  lands  were,  before  the  present  con- 
vulsion, very  generally  cultivated  by  the  ancient  mortitae  or 
metayer  tenants,  who  paid  to  the  Agas  half  of  their  produce. 
Whether  the  lands  thus  cultivated  consist  exclusively  of 
the  domain  lands  attached  to  the  Aga's  Timar,  or  whether 
this  rent  is  paid  in  consideration  of  stock  advanced  to 
the  rayah,  to  enable  him  to  cultivate  better  the  lands 
of  which  he  is  himself  the  hereditary  tenant,  I  have  no 
materials  for  judging.  It  is  probable  that  mortitse  are 
found  of  both  descriptions. 

There   are   evidently   some   advantages   in   the   Turkish 
system  compared  with  those  of  India  or  Persia.     The  per- 
1  Thornton,  p.  166.  2  Oliv.  p.  192. 


116  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  iv. 

manence  and  moderation  of  the  miri  or  land  rent,  is  a  very 
great  one.  If  collected  on  an  equitable  system,  that  rent 
would  be  no  more  than  a  reasonable  land  tax,  and  the 
universal  proprietorship  of  the  Sultan  would  be  reduced  to 
a  mere  nominal  or  honorary  superiority,  like  that  claimed 
by  many  of  the  Christian  monarchs  of  Europe.  We  may 
add,  that  the  Turkish  government  has  never  been  so  wholly 
unequal  to  the  task  of  controlling  its  officers,  as  the  feeble 
dynasties  of  Delhi  in  their  decline  :  nor  so  rapacious  and 
capricious  in  its  own  exactions  as  the  Shahs  of  Persia : 
but  its  comparative  moderation  and  strength  have  remained 
useless  to  its  unhappy  subjects,  from  a  degree  of  supine- 
ness  and  indifference  as  to  the  malversations  of  its  distant 
officers,  which  may  be  traced,  partly  perhaps  to  the  bigotry 
which  has  made  the  commander  of  the  faithful  careless 
about  the  treatment  his  Christian  subjects  received  from 
Mahometan  officers :  and  partly  to  an  obstinate  ignorance 
of  the  ordinary  arts  of  civilized  governments,  which  the 
vanity  of  the  Ottomans  has  cherished  as  if  it  were  a  merit, 
and  which  their  bigotry  has  also  helped  to  recommend  to 
their  good  opinion.  Near  the  capital,  and  in  the  countries 
where  the  Turks  themselves  are  numerous,  there  are  some 
bounds  to  the  oppression  of  the  Pachas  and  Agas.  The 
Turks,  secure  of  justice  if  they  can  contrive  to  be  heard 
by  the  superior  authorities,  have  found  the  means  of  pro- 
tecting their  persons  and  properties,  by  belonging  to  so- 
cieties, which  are  bound  as  bodies,  to  seek  justice  for  the 
wrongs  of  individual  members.  But  in  the  distant  provinces 
no  sect  is  safe.  The  cry  of  the  oppressed  is  easily  stifled, 
and  if  faintly  heard,  seems  habitually  disregarded.  The 


SEC.  iv.]  RYOT  RENTS.  117 

Sultan  indeed  abstains,  with  singular  forbearance,  from 
any  attempts  to  raise  the  revenue  paid  to  himself;  but 
provided  it  is  regularly  transmitted  by  the  Pachas  of  the 
provinces,  he  cares  little  by  what  means,  or  with  what  addi- 
tional extortions,  it  is  wrung  from  the  people.  The  conse- 
quences are  such  as  might  be  expected.  The  jealousy  of 
the  government  allows  the  Pachas  to  remain  in  office  but  a 
short  time,  the  knowledge  of  this  inflames  their  cupidity, 
and  the  wretched  cultivators  are  allowed  to  exist  in  peace 
upon  the  soil,  only  while  they  submit  to  exactions  which 
have  no  other  limit  than  the  physical  impossibility  of  get- 
ting more  from  them. 

Volney  has  accurately  described  the  effect  of  this  state  of 
things  in  Syria  and  Egypt.  "  The  absolute  title  of  the  Sul- 
"  tan  to  the  soil  appears  to  aggravate  the  oppression  of  his 
"officers.  The  son  is  never  certain  of  succeeding  to  the 
"  father,  and  the  peasantry  often  fly  in  desperation  from  a 
"  soil  which  has  ceased  to  yield  them  the  certainty  of  even 
"  a  bare  subsistence.  Exactions,  undiminished  in  amount, 
"  are  demanded,  and  as  far  as  possible  extorted,  from  those 
"who  remain;  depopulation  goes  on,  the  waste  extends 
"  itself,  and  desolation  becomes  permanent."  It  is  thus  that 
a  scanty  and  most  miserable  remnant  of  the  people  are 
found  occupying  tracts,  which  were  the  glory  of  ancient  civi- 
lization ;  and  of  which  the  climate  and  the  soil  are  such, 
that  men  would  multiply  and  would  enrich,  almost  without 
effort,  themselves  and  their  masters ;  did  the  general  gov- 
ernment think  fit  to  protect  its  subjects  with  half  the  energy 
it  sometimes  exerts,  to  force  the  spoilers  to  disgorge  a  mis- 
erable pittance  of  plunder  into  the  imperial  treasury. 


118  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  iv. 

SECTION  V. 
Of  Ryot  Rents  in  China. 

WE  know  enough  of  China  to  be  aware,  that  the  sovereign 
is  there,  as  elsewhere  in  Asia,  the  sole  proprietor  of  the  soil : 
but  we  hardly  know  enough  to  judge  accurately  of  the  pecul- 
iar modifications  which  this  system  of  imperial  ownership 
has  received  in  that  country.  The  manner  in  which  the 
Chinese  government  assumes  possession  of  the  land,  and 
imposes  a  rent  upon  it  in  the  case  of  new  conquests,  is 
curiously  illustrated  by  a  letter  of  a  victorious  Chinese 
commander  to  the  Emperor,  published  by  Mr.  Patton.1 
Although  one-tenth  of  the  produce  is  the  nominal  rent  in 
China,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  a  very  different  portion  is  act- 
ually collected.  It  would  be  very  interesting  to  have  more 
multiplied  and  detailed  observations  on  the  practical  effects 
of  the  system  among  the  Chinese,  than  the  jealousy  of  the 
government  is  likely  soon  to  give  opportunity  for  obtaining. 

The  progress  and  effects  of  ryot  rents  in  China,  must  al- 
most necessarily  have  been  very  different  from  those  exhib- 
ited by  India,  Persia,  or  Turkey.  In  these  last  countries, 
the  vices  of  the  government,  and  the  oppression  and  degra- 
dation resulting  from  them,  have  left  us  little  means  of  judg- 
ing what  might  be  the  results  of  the  system  itself,  if  conducted 
for  any  considerable  period  by  an  administration  more  mild 
and  forbearing,  and  capable  of  giving  security  to  the  persons 
and  property  of  the  cultivators.  In  China  this  experiment 
seems  to  have  been  fairly  tried.  The  arts  of  government 
1  Patton,  232,  233. 


SEC.  v.]  RYOT  RENTS.  119 

are,  to  a  certain  extent,  understood  by  the  laboriously  edu- 
cated civilians,  by  whose  hands  the  affairs  of  the  Empire  are 
carried  on ;  the  country  has,  till  very  lately,  been  remark- 
ably free  from  intestine  convulsion  or  serious  foreign  wars, 
and  the  administration  has  been  well  organized,  pacific  and 
efficient.  The  whole  conduct  indeed  of  the  Empire,  pre- 
sents a  striking  contrast  to  that  of  the  neighbouring  Asiatic 
monarchies,  the  people  of  which,  accustomed  to  see  violence 
and  bloodshed  the  common  instruments  of  government,  ex- 
press great  wonder  at  the  spectacle  of  the  Chinese  states- 
men upholding  the  authority  of  the  state  rather  by  the  pen 
than  the  sword.1  One  effect  we  know  to  have  followed  from 
the  public  tranquillity :  the  spread  of  agriculture,  and  an  in- 
crease of  people  much  beyond  that  of  the  neighbouring 
countries.  While  not  one  half  of  India  has  ever  been  re- 
claimed, and  less  still  of  Persia,  China  is  as  fully  cultivated, 
and  more  fully  peopled  than  most  European  monarchies. 

Whether  any  class  of  subordinate  proprietors  exists  be- 
tween the  crown  and  the  persons  paying  produce  rents  like 
to  the  Zemindars,  of  India;  whether  the  persons  actually 
liable  for  the  produce  rents,  are  the  cultivating  peasants 
themselves,  or  a  class  above  them,  we  have  no  sufficient  data 
to  determine  In  some  cases,  at  least,  the  actual  cultivators 
are  persons  hiring  the  ground  from  those  liable  for  the  crown, 
and  paying  them  half  the  produce. 

There  are  abundant  indications  that  the  Chinese  popula- 


1  Frazer,  Appendix,  p.  114.  See  Frazer's  account  of  the  Chinese  admin- 
istration in  the  provinces  nearest  Khorassan,  and  of  the  effect  which  the 
spectacle  of  that  administration  produced  on  the  minds  of  merchants  and 
travellers  from  other  Asiatic  states. 


120  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  iv. 

tion  has,  in  some  parts  of  the  Empire,  increased  beyond  the 
number  for  which  the  territory  can  produce  a  plentiful  sub- 
sistence, and  that  they  are  in  a  state  of  the  most  wretched 
penury.  The  very  facilities  for  increase  which  good  govern- 
ment gives  to  a  ryot  population,  will  usually  be  followed  by 
such  a  consequence,  if  in  the  progress  of  their  multiplication 
a  certain  advance  has  not  taken  place  in  the  habits  and  civi- 
lization of  the  mass  of  the  people.  The  absence  of  that 
improvement  may  flow  from  various  causes,  which  in  unfold- 
ing the  subject  of  population,  it  will  be  part  of  our  business 
to  distinguish.  We  know  enough  of  China  to  be  sure,  that 
obstacles  to  the  amelioration  of  the  habits  and  character  of 
the  mass  of  the  people,  exist  in  abundance  there,  and  there- 
fore the  rapid  spread  of  population,  up  to  a  certain  point, 
would  certainly  be  the  first  effect  of  a  mild  administration. 
According  to  Klaproth,  the  number  of  ryots  (paysans  con- 
tribuables)  at  the  time  of  the  Mantchou  conquest  in  1644, 
was  registered  as  twenty- six  millions,  while  all  other  classes 
were  estimated  at  eleven  millions.  And  since  that  time  he 
calculates  that  the  whole  population  has  quadrupled. 

The  revenue  of  China  amounts  to  about  eighty-four  mil- 
lions of  ounces  of  silver.  Of  this  revenue,  about  thirty-three 
millions  is  paid  in  money,  and  about  fifty-one  millions  in 
grains,  rice,  &c.,  consumed  for  the  most  part  by  the  local 
administration  of  the  provinces.  A  portion  only,  of  the 
value  of  about  six  millions  of  ounces,  is  annually  remitted  to 
Pekin.  The  receipt  of  this  huge  revenue,  in  the  primitive 
shape  of  agricultural  produce,  is  a  striking  proof  that  the 
power  and  means  of  the  Emperor  of  China,  like  those  of 
other  eastern  sovereigns,  are  intimately  connected  with,  or 


SEC.  vi.]  RYOT  RENTS.  121 

rather  founded  on,  his  rights  as  universal  proprietor  of  the 
soil.1 

There  are  other  considerable  countries  in  Asia  in  which 
we  have  good  reason  to  conclude,  that  ryot  rents  prevail ; 
consisting,  first,  of  the  countries  between  Hindostan  and 
China,  the  Birman  Empire,  and  its  dependencies,  Cochin 
China,  &c. ;  and,  secondly,  of  the  states  inhabited  by  agri- 
cultural Tartars,  north  of  the  Himalaya  mountains  and  east 
of  Persia,  Samarcand,  Bokhara,  and  the  states  of  Little  Bu- 
charia :  but  the  peculiar  modifications  the  system  may  re- 
ceive in  these  countries,  and  the  details  of  the  relations 
there  between  landlord  and  tenant,  are  at  present  even 
more  out  of  our  reach  than  in  the  case  of  China. 


SECTION  VI. 
Mixture  of  other  Rents  with  Ryot. 

ON  examining,  where  we  are  able  to  do  it  minutely,  the 
state  of  the  countries  in  which  ryot  rents  prevail,  we  are  im- 
mediately struck  with  the  fact,  that  they  are  sometimes 
mixed  up  with  both  labor  rents  and  metayer  rents.  The 
land  then  presents  a  strange  complication  of  interests. 
There  is  an  hereditary  tenant,  liable  to  a  produce  rent  to 
the  crown,  and  by  custom  and  prescription  irremoveable 
while  he  pays  it.  This  same  tenant,  receiving  some  assist- 
ance in  seed  and  implements,  pays  a  second  produce  rent 
to  another  person,  whose  character  fluctuates  between  that 

1  Bulletin  des  Sciences,  No.  5,  Mai  1829,  p.  314. 


122  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  iv. 

of  an  hereditary  officer  of  the  crown,  and  that  of  a  subordi- 
nate proprietor ;  and  sometimes  a  third  rent  is  paid  to  this 
subordinate  proprietor,  in  labor,  exerted  on  land  cultivated 
for  his  exclusive  benefit. 

To  begin  with  the  labor  rents,  thus  engrafted  on  ryot  rents. 
The  Ryot  of  Bengal  often  grants  a  plot  of  his  ground  to  a 
ploughman  who  assists  him.  This  is  a  pure  labor  rent,  paid 
by  the  under-tenant.  The  Zemindars  often  demand  from 
the  ryots  themselves,  a  certain  quantity  of  labor,  to  be  per- 
formed on  their  domain  lands.  This  demand  is  often  ex- 
cessive, and  is  the  source  of  grievous  oppression  and  frequent 
complaint,  both  in  India  and  Persia.  When  moderate  how- 
ever, it  is  considered  legal,  and  then  forms  another  labor 
rent,  paid  by  the  ryot  himself.  The  Agas  of  Turkey  often 
force  the  rayahs  of  their  Zaims  or  Timars,  to  perform  a  cer- 
tain number  of  days'  work  on  their  own  private  farms.  This 
is  unquestionably  altogether  an  illegal  exaction ;  but  is  so 
customary  that  it  must  be  counted  in  practice  as  an  addi- 
tional rent. 

Metayer  rents  too  have  a  constant  tendency  to  spring  up 
and  engraft  themselves  on  ryot  rents  throughout  Asia, 
wherever  the  moderation  and  efficiency  of  the  government 
is  such  as  to  ensure  protection  to  the  property  advanced  to 
the  cultivator,  or  wherever  the  relation  of  the  party  advanc- 
ing stock  to  the  cultivator,  is  such  as  to  give  a  peculiar 
power  of  enforcing  payment,  and  a  peculiar  interest  in 
assisting  cultivation.  Both  the  government  and  the  Zemin- 
dars in  India  occasionally  advance  seed  and  stock  to  the  ryot. 
The  government  reluctantly,  and  only  when  it  cannot  avoid 
it :  the  lands  thus  cultivated  on  the  part  of  government, 


SEC.  VIL]  RYOT  RENTS.  123 

are  called  coss  and  comar ;  and  to  get  them  into  the  hands 
of  ryots,  who  can  cultivate  themselves,  seems  to  have  been 
always  an  object  of  policy.  The  Zemindars  more  readily 
and  habitually  make  such  advances,  and  as  their  share  of  the 
produce  is  then  regulated  wholly  by  their  private  bargain 
with  the  ryot,  he  no  doubt  is  occasionally  much  oppressed  : 
but  this  is  not  always  the  case.  In  Persia  particularly,  this 
arrangement  is  considered  the  best  for  the  tenant ;  because 
in  that  country,  it  is  only  in  this  case,  that  the  Zemindar  or 
subordinate  proprietor  undertakes  to  ward  off  the  extortion 
of  the  officers  of  the  crown,  and  to  settle  with  them  himself. 


SECTION  VII. 
Summary  of  Ryot  Rents. 

THERE  is  nothing  mischievous  in  the  direct  effect  of  ryot 
rents.  They  are  usually  moderate  ;  and  when  restricted  to 
a  tenth,  or  even  a  sixth,  fifth,  or  fourth  of  the  produce,  if 
collected  peacefully  and  fairly,  they  become  a  species  of 
land  tax,  and  leave  the  tenant  a  beneficial  hereditary  estate. 
It  is  from  their  indirect  effects,  therefore,  and  from  the  form 
of  government  in  which  they  originate,  and  which  they  serve 
to  perpetuate,  that  they  are  full  of  evil,  and  are  found  in 
practice  more  hopelessly  destructive  of  the  property  and 
progress  of  the  people,  than  any  form  of  the  relation  of 
landlord  and  tenant  known  to  us. 

The  proprietary  rights  of  the  sovereign,  and  his  large  and 
practically  indefinite  interest  in  the  produce,  prevent  the 


124  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  iv. 

formation  of  any  really  independent  body  on  the  land.  By 
the  distribution  of  the  rents  which  his  territory  produces,  the 
monarch  maintains  the  most  influential  portion  of  the  re- 
maining population  in  the  character  of  civil  or  military 
officers.  There  remain  only  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns 
to  interpose  a  check  to  his  power :  but  the  majority  of  these 
are  fed  by  the  expenditure  of  the  sovereign  or  his  servants. 
We  shall  have  a  fitter  opportunity  to  point  out,  how  com- 
pletely the  prosperity,  or  rather  the  existence,  of  the  towns 
of  Asia,  proceeds  from  the  local  expenditure  of  the  govern- 
ment. As  the  citizens  are  thus  destitute  from  their  position 
of  real  strength,  so  the  Asiatic  sovereigns,  having  no  body  of 
powerful  privileged  landed  proprietors  to  contend  with, 
have  not  had  the  motives  which  the  European  monarchs 
had,  to  nurse  and  foster  the  towns  into  engines  of  political 
influence,  and  the  citizens  are  proverbially  the  most  helpless 
and  prostrate  of  the  slaves  of  Asia.  There  exists  nothing 
therefore  in  the  society  beneath  him,  which  can  modify  the 
power  of  a  sovereign,  who  is  the  supreme  proprietor  of  a 
territory  cultivated  by  a  population  of  ryot  peasants.  All 
that  there  is  of  real  strength  in  such  a  population,  looks  to 
him  as  the  sole  source  not  merely  of  protection  but  of  sub- 
sistence :  he  is  by  his  position  and  necessarily  a  despot. 
But  the  results  of  Asiatic  despotism  have  ever  been  the 
same  :  while  it  is  strong  it  is  delegated,  and  its  power 
abused  by  its  agents ;  when  feeble  and  declining,  that  power 
is  violently  shared  by  its  inferiors,  and  its  stolen  authority 
yet  more  abused.  In  its  strength  and  in  its  weakness  it  is 
alike  destructive  of  the  industry  and  wealth  of  its  subjects, 
and  all  the  arts  of  peace  ;  and  it  is  this  which  makes  that 


SEC.  VIL]  RYOT  RENTS.  125 

peculiar  system  of  rents,  on  which  its  power  rests,  par- 
ticularly objectionable  and  calamitous  to  the  countries  in 
which  it  prevails. 

In  countries  cultivated  by  ryots,  the  wages  of  the  main 
body  of  the  people  are  determined  by  the  rent  they  pay,  as 
is  the  case  it  will  be  remembered  under  all  varieties  of 
peasant  rents.  The  quantity  of  produce  being  determined 
by  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  the  extent  of  his  allotments  of 
land,  and  the  skill,  industry,  and  efficiency  of  the  ryot :  the 
division  of  that  produce  on  which  his  wages  depend,  is 
determined  by  his  contract  with  the  landlord,  that  is,  by 
the  rent  he  pays. 

In  like  manner  the  amount  of  rent  in  such  countries  is 
determined  by  the  amount  of  wages.  The  amount  of  the 
produce  being  decided  as  before,  the  landlord's  share,  the 
rent,  depends  upon  the  contract  he  makes  with  the  laborer, 
that  is,  upon  the  amount  deducted  as  wages. 

The  existence  and  progress  of  rents  under  the  ryot  sys- 
tem is  in  no  degree  dependent  upon  the  existence  of  differ- 
ent qualities  of  soil,  or  different  returns  to  the  stock  and  labor 
employed  on  each.  The  sovereign  proprietor  has  the  means 
of  enabling  a  body  of  laborers  to  maintain  themselves,  who 
without  the  machinery  of  the  earth  with  which  he  supplies 
them,  must  starve.  This  would  secure  him  a  share  in  the 
produce  of  their  labor,  though  all  the  lands  were  perfectly 
equal  in  quality. 

Ryot  rents  may  increase  from  two  causes,  from  an  in- 
crease of  the  whole  produce,  effected  by  the  greater  skill, 
industry,  and  efficiency  of  the  tenant :  or  from  an  increase 
of  the  sovereign's  proportion  of  the  produce;  the  pro- 


126  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  iv. 

duce  itself  remaining  the  same,  and  the  tenant's  share  be- 
coming less. 

When  the  rent  increases  and  the  produce  remains  sta- 
tionary, the  increase  indicates  no  augmentation  of  public 
wealth.  There  has  been  a  transfer  of  wealth,  but  no  increase 
of  it ;  and  one  party  is  impoverished  by  the  precise  amount 
that  another  is  enriched.  But  when  ryot  rents  increase 
because  the  produce  has  become  larger,  the  country  is 
enriched  by  an  addition  of  wealth  to  the  full  amount  of  the 
increase.  Its  power  of  maintaining  fleets  and  armies,  and 
all  the  elements  of  public  strength,  have  been  augmented 
to  that  extent ;  there  has  been  a  real  increase  of  wealth,  not 
a  mere  transfer  of  what  before  existed,  from  one  hand  to 
another.  Such  an  increase  too  indicates  an  augmentation 
of  the  revenues  of  the  ryots  themselves.  If  the  tenth  or 
sixth  of  the  sovereign  has  doubled,  the  nine-tenths  or  five- 
sixths  of  the  ryot  have  doubled  also. 

The  increase  of  rents  which  is  thus  seen  to  go  hand^  in 
hand  with  the  improvement  of  the  general  wealth  and 
strength,  is  that  which  alone  in  the  long  run  can  really  ben- 
efit the  landlord.  While  an  increase  of  produce  rents  has 
its  source  in  greater  crops,  it  may  go  on  till  the  skill  of  man 
and  the  fertility  of  the  earth  have  reached  their  maximum, 
that  is,  indefinitely.  Asiatic  tenants,  cultivating  with  their 
own  soil  and  climate,  and  the  skill  and  energy  of  the  best 
European  farmers,  might  create  produce  much  greater  than 
any  yet  known  in  that  quarter  of  the  globe,  and  be  greatly 
improving  their  own  revenue  while  they  were  paying  in- 
creased rents  to  the  sovereign.  And  while  the  prosperity  of 
the  ryots  thus  kept  pace  with  the  increase  of  rents,  the 


SEC.  vii.]  RYOT  RENTS.  127 

result  would  be,  not  merely  an  increase  of  the  crops  on  the 
lands  already  cultivated,  but  the  rapid  spread  of  cultivation 
to  other  lands.  A  protected  and  thriving  and  increasing 
population  would  speedily  reclaim  the  rich  wastes  of  Turkey 
and  India,  and  call  back  their  vanished  fertility  to  the  de- 
serted plains  of  Persia,  multiplying  at  every  step  both  the 
direct  revenue  of  the  sovereign  landlord,  and  his  resources 
in  the  general  wealth  of  his  people.  Taking  Asia  as  a  whole, 
such  a  progress  seems  visionary,  but  it  is  occasionally  exhib- 
ited, on  a  smaller  scale,  in  a  manner  which  very  distinctly 
proves  it  possible,  and  indeed  easy  on  the  greatest.  An 
increase  of  rents  derived  from  a  stationary  produce,  and  a 
diminution  of  the  ryot's  share,  is  unfortunately  more  com- 
mon in  Asia,  and  leads  to  no  such  results.  In  the  state  in 
which  the  ryots  usually  exist,  to  decrease  their  revenue  is  to 
injure  if  not  to  destroy  their  efficiency  as  agents  of  cultiva- 
tion. A  serious  invasion  of  it  is  very  usually  followed,  and 
carried  to  a  certain  extent  it  must  be  followed,  by  the  deser- 
tion of  the  cultivators  and  the  abandonment  of  cultivation, 
and  a  total  cessation  of  rent.  The  greediness  of  eastern 
rulers  ordinarily  snatches  at  the  bait  of  present  gain,  and 
overlooks  or  disregards  the  very  different  ultimate  conse- 
quences which  follow  the  augmenting  their  landed  revenues, 
from  the  one,  or  from  the  other,  of  these  sources  of  increase. 
Hence  in  a  great  measure  the  actual  state  of  Asia,  the  misery 
of  the  people,  the  poverty  and  feebleness  of  the  govern- 
ments. An  examination  into  the  nature  and  effects  of  ryot 
rents,  receives  an  almost  mournful  interest  from  the  convic- 
tion, that  the  political  and  social  institutions  of  the  people 
of  this  large  division  of  the  earth,  are  likely  for  many  long 


128  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  iv. 

ages  yet  to  come,  to  rest  upon  them.  We  cannot  unveil  the 
future,  but  there  is  little  in  the  character  of  the  Asiatic  pop- 
ulation, which  can  tempt  us  even  to  speculate  upon  a  time, 
when  that  future,  with  respect  to  them,  will  essentially  differ 
from  the  past  and  the  present. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Cottier  Rents. 

UNDER  the  head  of  cottier  rents,  we  may  include  all 
rents  contracted  to  be  paid  in  money,  by  peasant  tenants, 
extracting  their  own  maintenance  from  the  soil. 

They  are  found  to  some  extent  in  various  countries ;  but 
it  is  in  Ireland  alone  that  they  exist  in  such  a  mass,  as  pal- 
pably to  influence  the  general  state  of  the  country.  They 
differ  from  the  other  classes  of  peasant  rents  in  this  the 
most  materially;  that  it  is  not  enough  for  the  tenant  to 
be  prepared  to  give  in  return  for  the  land  which  enables 
him  to  maintain  himself,  a  part  of  his  labor,  as  in  the 
case  of  serf  rents,  or  a  definite  proportion  of  the  produce, 
as  in  the  case  of  metayer  or  ryot  rents.  He  is  bound, 
whatever  the  quantity  or  value  of  his  produce  may  be,  to 
pay  a  fixed  sum  of  money  to  the  proprietor.  This  is  a 
change  most  difficult  to  introduce,  and  very  important 
when  introduced.  Money  payments  from  the  'occupiers, 
are  by  no  means  essential,  we  must  recollect,  to  the  rise 
or  progress  of  rents.  Over  by  far  the  greater  part  of 
the  globe  such  payments  have  never  yet  been  established. 
Tenants  yielding  plentiful  rents  in  produce,  may  be  quite 
unable,  from  the  infrequency  of  exchanges,  to  pay  even 
small  sums  in  money,  and  the  owners  of  the  land  may, 
and  do,  form  an  affluent  body,  consuming  and  distributing 
K  129 


130  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

a  large  proportion  of  the  annual  produce  of  a  country, 
while  it  is  extremely  difficult  for  them  to  lay  their  hands 
on  very  insignificant  sums  in  cash.  Money  rents,  indeed, 
are  so  very  rarely  paid  by  peasant  cultivators,  that  where 
they  do  exist  among  them,  we  may  expect  to  find  the 
power  of  discharging  them  founded  on  peculiar  circum- 
stances. In  the  case  of  Ireland,  it  is  the  neighbourhood 
of  England,  and  the  connection  between  the  two  coun- 
tries, which  support  the  system  of  money  rents  paid  by 
the  peasantry.  From  all  parts  of  Ireland,  the  access,  direct 
or  indirect,  to  the  English  market,  gives  the  Irish  cultivators 
means  of  obtaining  cash  for  a  portion  of  their  produce. 
In  some  districts,  it  even  appears  that  the  rents  are  paid 
in  money  earnt  by  harvest-work  in  England ;  and  it  is 
repeatedly  stated  in  the  evidence  before  the  Emigration 
Committee,  that,  were  this  resource  to  fail,  the  power  of 
paying  rents  would  cease  in  these  districts  at  once.  Were 
Ireland  placed  in  a  remoter  part  of  the  world,  surrounded 
by  nations  not  more  advanced  than  herself,  and  were  her 
cultivators  dependent  for  their  means  of  getting  cash  on 
her  own  internal  opportunities  of  exchange ;  it  seems 
highly  probable,  that  the  landlords  would  soon  be  driven 
by  necessity  to  adopt  a  system  of  either  labor  or  produce 
rents,  similar  to  those  which  prevail  over  the  large  portion 
of  the  globe,  cultivated  by  the  other  classes  of  peasant 
tenantry. 

Once  established,  however,  the  effects  of  the  prevalence 
of  cottier  rents  among  a  peasant  population  are  important : 
some  advantageous,  some  prejudicial.  In  estimating  them, 
we  labor  under  the  great  disadvantage  of  having  to  form 


v.]  COTTIER  RENTS.  131 

our  general  conclusions  from  a  view  of  a  single  instance, 
that  of  Ireland.  Did  we  know  nothing  of  labor  rents  but 
what  we  collect  from  one  country,  Hungary  for  instance, 
how  very  deficient  would  have  been  notions  of  their 
characteristics. 

The  disadvantages  of  cottier  rents  may  be  ranged  under 
three  heads.  First,  the  want  of  any  external  check  to 
assist  in  repressing  the  increase  of  the  peasant  population 
beyond  the  bounds  of  an  easy  subsistence.  Secondly,  the 
want  of  any  protection  to  their  interests,  from  the  influence 
of  usage  and  prescription  in  determining  the  amount  of 
their  payments.  And,  thirdly,  the  absence  of  that  obvious 
and  direct  common  interest,  between  the  owners  and  the 
occupiers  of  the  soil,  which  under  the  other  systems  of 
peasant  rents,  secure  to  the  tenants  the  fprbearance  and 
assistance  of  their  landlords  when  calamity  overtakes  them. 

The  first,  and  certainly  the  most  important  disadvantage 
of  cottier  rents  is  the  absence  of  those  external  checks 
(common  to  every  other  class  of  peasant  rents)  which 
assist  in  repressing  the  effects  of  the  disposition  found  in 
all  peasant  cultivators,  to  increase  up  to  the  limits  of  a  very 
scanty  subsistence. 

To  explain  this,  we  must,  to  a  slight  extent,  anticipate  the 
subject  of  population.  It  shall  be  as  shortly  as  possible. 
We  know  that  men's  animal  power  of  increase  is  such,  as 
to  admit  of  a  very  rapid  replenishing  of  the  districts  they 
inhabit.  When  their  numbers  are  as  great  as  their  terri- 
tory will  support  in  plenty,  if  the  effects  of  such  a  power 
of  increase  are  not  diminished,  their  condition  must  get 
worse.  If,  however,  the  effects  of  their  animal  power  of 


132  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

multiplication  are  diminished,  this  must  happen,  either  from 
internal  causes  or  motives,  indisposing  them  to  its  full  ex- 
ercise, or  from  external  causes  acting  independently  of 
their  will.  But  a  peasant  population,  raising  their  own 
wages  from  the  soil,  and  consuming  them  in  kind,  what- 
ever may  be  the  form  of  their  rents,  are  universally  acted 
upon  very  feebly  by  internal  checks,  or  by  motives  dis- 
posing them  to  restraint.  The  causes  of  this  peculiarity  we 
shall  have  hereafter  to  point  out.  The  consequence  is,  that 
unless  some  external  cause,  quite  independent  of  their 
will,  forces  such  peasant  cultivators  to  slacken  their  rate  of 
increase,  they  will,  in  a  limited  territory,  whatever  be  the 
form  of  their  rents,  very  rapidly  approach  a  state  of  want 
and  penury,  and  will  be  stopped  at  last  only  by  the  phys- 
ical impossibility  of  procuring  subsistence.  Where  labor 
or  metayer  rents  prevail,  such  external  causes  of  repres- 
sion are  found  in  the  interests  and  interference  of  the 
landlords  :  where  ryot  rents  are  established,  in  the  vices 
and  mismanagement  of  the  government : l  where  cottier 
rents  prevail,  no  such  external  causes  exist,  and  the  un- 
checked disposition  of  the  people  leads  to  a  multiplica- 
tion which  ends  in  wretchedness.  Cottier  rents,  then, 
evidently  differ  for  the  worse  in  this  respect  from  serf 
and  metayer  rents.  It  is  not  meant  of  course  that  serfs 
and  metayers  do  not  increase  till  their  numbers  and  wants 
would  alone  place  them  very  much  at  the  mercy  of  the 
proprietors,  but  the  obvious  interest  of  those  proprietors 

1  Where  the  phenomenon  can  be  observed  of  a  mild  and  efficient  gov- 
ernment over  a  race  of  ryot  tenants,  as  in  China,  they  are  found  to  increase 
with  extraordinary  rapidity. 


v.]  COTTIER  RENTS.  133 

leads  them  to  refuse  their  assent  to  the  further  division 
of  the  soil,  and  so  to  withhold  the  means  of  settling  more 
families,  long  before  the  earth  becomes  thronged  with  a 
multitudinous  tenantry,  to  which  it  can  barely  yield  sub- 
sistence. The  Russian  or  Hungarian  noble  wants  no  more 
serf  tenants  than  are  sufficient  for  the  cultivation  of  his 
domain ;  and  he  refuses  allotments  of  land  to  any  greater 
number,  or  perhaps  forbids  them  to  marry.  The  power 
of  doing  this  has  at  one  time  or  other  existed  as  a  legal 
right  wherever  labor  rents  have  prevailed.  The  owner 
of  a  domain  cultivated  by  metayers,  has  an  interest  in 
not  multiplying  his  tenants,  and  the  mouths  to  be  fed, 
beyond  the  number  necessary  to  its  complete  cultivation. 
When  he  refuses  to  subdivide  the  ground  further,  fresh 
families  can  find  no  home,  and  the  increase  of  the  aggre- 
gate numbers  of  the  people  is  checked.  The  thinness  of 
the  population  in  ryot  countries  is  ordinarily  caused  by 
the  vices  and  violence  of  the  government,  and  there  is 
no  question  that  this  is  what  keeps  so  large  a  portion 
of  Asia  ill  peopled  or  desolate.  But  when  cottier  rents 
have  established  themselves,  the  influence  of  the  landlord 
is  not  exerted  to  check  the  multiplication  of  the  peasant 
cultivators,  till  an  extreme  case  arrives.  The  first  effects 
of  the  increasing  numbers  of  the  people,  that  is,  the  more 
ardent  competition  for  allotments,  and  the  general  rise  of 
rents,  seem  for  a  time  unquestionable  advantages  to  the 
landlords,  and  they  have  no  direct  or  obvious  motive  to 
refuse  further  subdivision,  or  to  interfere  with  the  settle- 
ment of  fresh  families,  till  the  evident  impossibility  of 
getting  the  stipulated  rents,  and  perhaps  the  turbulence  of 


134  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

peasants  starving  on  insufficient  patches  of  land,  warn  the 
proprietors  that  the  time  is  come,  when  their  own  interests 
imperiously  require  that  the  multiplication  of  the  tenantry 
should  be  moderated.  We  know,  however,  from  the  in- 
stance of  Ireland,  the  only  one  on  a  large  scale  open  to 
our  observation,  that  while  rents  are  actually  rising,  a  con- 
viction that  their  nominal  increase  is  preparing  a  real 
diminution,  comes  slowly,  and  is  received  reluctantly ;  and 
that  before  such  a  conviction  begins  to  be  generally  acted 
upon,  the  cultivators  may  be  reduced  to  a  situation,  in 
which  they  are  both  wretched  and  dangerous. 

The  tardiness  with  which  landlords  exert  their  influence 
in  repressing  the  multiplication  of  the  people,  must  be 
ranked  then  among  the  disadvantages  of  cottier,  when  com- 
pared with  serf  or  metayer  rents. 

Their  second  disadvantage  is  the  want  of  any  influence  of 
custom  and  prescription,  in  keeping  the  terms  of  the  con- 
tract between  the  proprietors  and  their  tenantry,  steady  and 
fixed. 

In  surveying  the  habits  of  a  serf  or  metayer  country,  we 
are  usually  able  to  trace  some  effects  of  ancient  usage. 
The  number  of  days'  labor  performed  for  the  landlord  by 
the  serf  remains  the  same,  from  generation  to  generation,  in 
all  the  provinces  of  considerable  empires.  The  metayer 
derived  his  old  name  of  Colonus  Medietarius  from  taking 
half  the  produce  ;  and  half  the  produce  we  see  still  his  usual 
portion,  throughout  large  districts  containing  soils  of  very 
different  qualities.  It  is  true  that  this  influence  of  ancient 
usage  does  not  always  protect  the  tenant  from  want  or  op- 
pression ;  its  tendency  however  is  decidedly  in  his  favor. 


v.]  COTTIER  RENTS.  135 

But  cottier  rents,  contracted  to  be  paid  in  money,  must 
vary  in  nominal  amount  with  the  variations  in  the  price  of 
produce  :  after  change  has  become  habitual,  all  traces  of  a 
rent,  considered  equitable  because  it  is  prescriptive,  are 
wholly  lost,  and  each  bargain  is  determined  by  competition. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  tendency  to  constancy 
in  the  terms  of  their  contract,  observable  in  serf  and 
metayer  countries,  is  on  the  whole  a  protection  to  the  culti- 
vators, and  that  change  and  competition,  common  amongst 
cottiers,  are  disadvantageous  to  them. 

The  third  disadvantage  of  cottier  rents  is  the  absence  of 
such  a  direct  and  obvious  common  interest  between  land- 
lord and  tenant,  as  might  secure  to  the  cultivator  assistance 
when  in  distress. 

There  can  be  no  case  in  which  there  is  not,  in  reality,  a 
community  of  interest  between  the  proprietors  of  the  soil, 
and  those  who  cultivate  it;  but  their  common  interest  in 
the  other  forms  of  peasant  holding,  is  more  direct  and  obvi- 
ous, and  therefore  more  influential,  upon  the  habits  and 
feelings  of  both  tenants  and  landlords.  The  owner  of  a  serf 
relies  upon  the  labor  of  his  tenants  for  producing  his  own 
subsistence,  and  when  his  tenant  becomes  a  more  inefficient 
instrument  of  cultivation,  he  sustains  a  loss.  The  owner 
of  a  metairie,  who  takes  a  proportion  of  the  produce,  can- 
not but  see  that  the  energy  and  efficiency  of  his  tenant,  are 
his  own  gain :  languid  and  imperfect  cultivation  his  loss. 
The  serf,  therefore,  relies  upon  his  lord's  sense  of  interest, 
or  feelings  of  kindness  for  assistance,  if  his  crops  fail,  or 
calamity  overtakes  him  in  any  shape ;  and  he  seldom  is  re- 
pulsed or  deceived.  This  half  recognized  claim  to  assistance 


136  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

seems,  we  know,  occasionally,  so  valuable  to  the  serfs,  that 
they  have  rejected  freedom  from  the  fear  of  losing  it.  The 
metayers  receive  constantly  loans  of  food  and  other  assistance 
from  the  landlord,  when  from  any  causes  their  own  resources 
fail.  The  fear  of  losing  their  stock,  their  revenue,  and  all 
the  advances  already  made,  prevent  the  most  reluctant  land- 
lords from  withholding  aid  on  such  occasions.  Even  the 
Ryot,  miserable  as  he  ordinarily  is,  and  great  as  is  the  dis- 
tance which  separates  him  from  the  sovereign  proprietor, 
is  not  always  without  some  share  in  these  advantages.  His 
exertions  are  felt  to  be  the  great  source  of  the  revenue  of 
the  state,  and  under  tolerably  well  regulated  governments, 
the  importance  is  felt  and  admitted,  of  aiding  the  cultivators 
when  distressed,  by  forbearance,  and  sometimes  by  advances.1 
The  interests  of  the  cottier  tenant  are  less  obviously  identi- 
fied with  those  of  the  proprietor :  changes  of  tenants,  and 
variations  of  rent,  are  common  occurrences,  and  the  removal 
of  an  unlucky  adventurer,  and  the  acceptance  of  a  more 
sanguine  bidder,  are  expedients  more  easy  and  palateable 
to  the  proprietors,  than  that  of  mixing  themselves  up  with 
the  risks  and  burthens  of  cultivation,  by  advances  to  their 
tenants.  In  the  highlands  of  Scotland,  indeed,  the  chief 
assisted  his  clan  largely.  They  were  his  kinsmen  and  de- 
fenders :  bound  to  him  by  ties  of  blood,  and  the  guardians  of 
his  personal  safety.  The  habits  engendered  while  these  feel- 
ings were  fresh,  are  not  yet  worn  out.  Lord  Stafford  has  sent 
to  Sutherland  very  large  supplies  of  food.  The  chief  of  the 
isle  of  Rumsey  supported  his  people  to  such  an  extent,  that 
he  has  lately  found  it  worth  while  to  expend  very  consider- 

1  Aurenzebe's  Instructions  to  his  Collectors.     (See  Appendix  VI.) 


v.]  COTTIER  RENTS.  137 

able  sums  in  enabling  them  to  emigrate.1  But  the  cottier 
merely  as  such,  the  Irish  cottier,  for  instance,  has  no  such 
hold  on  the  sympathies  of  his  landlord,  and  there  can  be  no 
question  that  of  the  various  classes  of  peasant  tenantry,  they 
stand  the  most  thoroughly  desolate  and  alone  in  the  time  of 
calamity :  that  they  have  the  least  protection  from  the  or- 
dinary effects  of  disastrous  reverses,  or  of  the  failure  of  their 
scanty  resources  from  any  other  causes. 

Such  are  the  disadvantages  of  this  the  least  extensive 
system  of  peasant  rents.  The  principal  advantage  the 
cottier  derives  from  his  form  of  tenure,  is  the  great  facility 
with  which,  when  circumstances  are  favourable  to  him, 
he  changes  altogether  his  condition  in  society.  In  serf, 
metayer,  or  ryot  countries,  extensive  changes  must  take 
place  in  the  whole  framework  of  society,  before  the  peas- 
ants become  capitalists,  and  independent  farmers.  The 
serf  has  many  stages  to  go  through  before  he  arrives  at  this 
point,  and  we  have  seen  how  hard  it  is  for  him  to  advance 
one  step.  The  metayer  too  must  become  the  owner  of  the 
stock  on  his  farm,  and  be  able  to  undertake  to  pay  a  money 
rent.  Both  changes  take  place  slowly  and  with  difficulty, 
especially  the  last,  the  substitution  of  money  rents,  which 
supposes  a  considerable  previous  improvement  in  the  in- 
ternal commerce  of  the  nation,  and  is  ordinarily  the  result, 
not  the  commencement,  of  improvement  in  the  condition 
of  the  cultivators.  But  the  cottier  is  already  the  owner  of 
his  own  stock,  he  exists  in  a  society  in  which  the  power  of 
paying  money  rents  is  already  established.  If  he  thrives  in 
his  occupation,  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  his  enlarging  his 

1  See  Emigration  Report. 


138  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

holding,  increasing  his  stock,  and  becoming  a  capitalist, 
and  a  farmer  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word.  It  is  pleas- 
ing to  hear  the  resident  Irish  landlords,  who  have  taken 
some  pains,  and  made  some  sacrifices,  to  improve  the 
character  and  condition  of  their  tenantry,  bearing  their 
testimony  to  this  fact,  and  stating  the  rapidity  with  which 
some  of  the  cottiers  have,  under  their  auspices,  acquired 
stock,  and  become  small  farmers.  Most  of  the  countries 
occupied  by  metayers,  serfs,  and  ryots,  will  probably  con- 
tain a  similar  race  of  tenantry  for  some  ages.  If  the  events 
of  the  next  half  century  are  favourable  to  Ireland,  her 
cottiers  are  likely  to  disappear,  and  to  be  merged  in  a  very 
different  race  of  cultivators.  This  facility  for  gliding  out 
of  their  actual  condition  to  a  higher  and  a  better,  is  an 
advantage,  and  a  very  great  advantage,  of  the  cottier  over 
the  other  systems  of  peasant  rents,  and  atones  for  some 
of  its  gloomier  features. 

Making  allowances  for  the  peculiarities  pointed  out,  the 
effects  of  cottier  rents  on  the  wages  of  labor,  and  other 
relations  of  society,  will  be  similar  to  those  of  other  peas- 
ant rents.  The  quantity  of  produce  being  determined  by 
the  fertility  of  the  soil,  the  extent  of  the  allotment,  and 
the  skill  and  industry  of  the  cottier;  the  division  of  that 
produce  on  which  his  wages  depend,  is  determined  by  his 
contract  with  the  landlord ;  by  the  rent  he  pays.  And 
again,  the  whole  amount  of  produce  being  determined  as 
before,  the  landlord's  share,  the  rent,  depends  upon  the 
maintenance  left  to  the  peasant,  that  is,  upon  his  wages. 

The  existence  of  rent,  under  a  system  of  cottier  tenants, 
is  in  no  degree  dependent  upon  the  existence  of  different 


v.]  COTTIER  RENTS.  139 

qualities  of  soil,  or  of  different  returns  to  the  stock  and 
labor  employed.  Where,  as  has  been  repeatedly  observed, 
no  funds  sufficient  to  support  the  body  of  the  laborers,  are 
in  existence,  they  must  raise  food  themselves  from  the 
earth,  or  starve ;  and  this  circumstance  would  make  them 
tributary  to  the  landlords,  and  give  rise  to  rents,  and,  as 
their  number  increased,  to  very  high  rents,  though  all  the 
lands  were  perfectly  equal  in  quality. 

Cottier  rents,  like  other  peasant  rents,  may  increase  from 
two  causes ;  first,  from  an  increase  of  the  whole  produce, 
of  which  increase  the  landlord  takes  the  whole  or  a  part. 
Or,  the  produce  remaining  stationary,  they  may  increase 
from  an  augmentation  of  the  landlord's  share,  that  of  the 
tenant  being  diminished  to  the  exact  amount  of  the  addi- 
tional rent. 

When  the  rent  increases  and  the  produce  remains  sta- 
tionary, the  increase  of  rent  indicates  no  increase  of  the 
riches  and  revenue  of  the  country :  there  has  been  a  trans- 
fer of  wealth,  but  no  addition  to  it :  one  party  is  impover- 
ished to  the  precise  amount  to  which  another  is  enriched. 

When,  on  the  other  hand,  increased  rents  are  paid  by 
increased  produce,  there  is  an  addition  to  the  wealth  of 
the  country,  not  a  mere  transfer  of  that  already  existing : 
the  country  is  richer  to  the  extent,  at  least,  of  the  increased 
rent :  and,  probably,  to  a  greater  extent  from  the  increased 
revenue  of  the  cultivators. 

It  is  obviously  the  interest  of  the  landlord  of  cottier, 
as  of  other  peasant  tenants,  that  an  increase  of  his  rents 
should  always  originate  in  the  prosperity  of  cultivation, 
not  in  pressure  on  the  tenants.  The  power  of  increase 


140  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH.  v. 

from  the  last  source  is  very  limited :  from  improvement, 
indefinite. 

It  is  clearly  too  the  interest  of  the  landlord,  that  the 
cottier  tenantry  should  be  replaced  by  capitalists,  capable 
of  pushing  cultivation  to  the  full  extent  to  which  skill  and 
means  can  carry  it :  instead  of  the  land  being  entrusted  to 
the  hands  of  mere  laborers,  struggling  to  exist,  unable  to 
improve,  and  when  much  impoverished  by  competition, 
degraded,  turbulent,  and  dangerous. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
i 

SUMMARY   OF   PEASANT   RENTS. 
Influence  of  Rent  on    Wages. 

ONE  important  fact  must  strike  us  forcibly  on  looking  back 
on  the  collective  body  of  those  primary  or  peasant  rents, 
which  we  have  been  tracing,  in  their  various  forms,  over  the 
surface  of  the  globe.  It  is  their  constant  and  very  intimate 
connection  with  the  wages  of  labor. 

In  this  respect  the  serf,  the  metayer,  the  ryot,  the  cottier, 
are  alike  :  the  terms  on  which  they  can  obtain  the  spot  of 
ground  they  cultivate,  exercise  an  active  and  predominant 
influence,  in  determining  the  reward  they  shall  receive  for 
their  personal  exertions  ;  or,  in  other  words,  their  real  wages. 
We  should  take  a  very  false  view  of  the  causes  which  regulate 
the  amount  of  their  earnings,  if  we  merely  calculated  the 
quantity  of  capital  in  existence  at  any  given  time,  and  then 
attempted  to  compute  their  share  of  it  by  a  survey  of  their 
numbers.  As  they  produce  their  own  wages,  all  the  circum- 
stances which  affect  either  their  powers  of  production,  or 
their  share  of  the  produce,  must  be  taken  into  the  estimate. 
And  among  these,  principally,  those  circumstances,  which' we 
have  seen  distinguish  one  set  of  peasant  tenantry  from 
another.  The  mode  in  which  their  rent  is  paid,  whether  in 
labor,  produce,  or  money :  the  effects  of  time  and  usage  in 

141 


142  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

softening,  or  exaggerating,  or  modifying,  the  original  form  or 
results  of  their  contract :  all  these  things,  and  their  combined 
effects,  must  be  carefully  examined,  and  well  considered, 
before  we  can  expect  to  understand  what  it  is  which  limits 
the  wages  of  the  peasant,  and  fixes  the  standard  of  his 
condition  and  enjoyments. 

While,  then,  the  position  of  a  large  proportion  of  the 
population  of  the  earth  continues  to  be,  what  it  has  ever  yet 
been,  such  as  to  oblige  them  to  extract  their  own  food  with 
their  own  hands  from  its  bosom ;  the  form  and  condition  of 
peasant  tenure,  and  the  nature  and  amount  of  the  rents  paid 
under  them,  will  necessarily  exercise  a  leading  influence  on 
the  condition  of  the  laboring  classes,  and  on  the  real  wages 
of  their  labor. 

Influence  of  Peasant  Rents  on  Agricultural  Production. 

The  next  remarkable  effect,  common  to  all  the  forms  of 
peasant  rents,  is  their  influence  in  preventing  the  full  devel- 
opement  of  the  productive  powers  of  the  earth. 

If  we  observe  the  difference  which  exists  in  the  produc- 
tiveness of  the  industry  of  different  bodies  of  men,  in  any  of 
the  various  departments  of  human  exertion,  we  shall  find 
that  difference  to  depend,  almost  wholly,  on  two  circum- 
stances :  first,  on  the  quantity  of  contrivance  used  in  apply- 
ing manual  labor:  secondly,  on  the  extent  to  which  the 
mere  physical  exertions  of  men's  hands  are  assisted  by  the 
accumulated  results  of  past  labor :  in  other  words,  on  the 
different  quantities  of  skill,  knowledge,  and  capital,  brought  to 
the  task  of  production.  A  difference  in  these,  occasions  all 
the  difference  between  the  productive  powers  of  a  body  of 


vi.]  PEASANT  RENTS  IN  GENERAL.  143 

savages,  and  those  of  an  equal  body  of  English  agriculturists 
or  manufacturers  :  and  it  occasions  also  the  less  striking 
differences,  which  exist  between  the  productive  powers  of 
the  various  bodies  of  men,  who  occupy  gradations  between 
these  two  extremes. 

When  the  earth  is  cultivated  under  a  system  of  peasant 
rents,  the  task  of  directing  agriculture,  and  of  providing 
what  is  necessary  to  assist  its  operations,  is  either  thrown 
wholly  upon  the  peasants,  as  in  the  case  of  ryot  and  cottier 
rents,  or  divided  between  them  and  their  landlords,  as  in  the 
case  of  serf  and  metayer  rents.  In  neither  of  these  cases  is 
the  efficiency  of  agricultural  industry  likely  to  be  carried  as 
far  as  it  might  be.  Poverty,  and  the  constant  fatigues  of 
laborious  exertion,  put  both  science,  and  the  means  of  assist- 
ing his  industry  by  the  accumulation  of  capital,  out  of  the 
reach  of  the  peasant.  And  when  the  landlords  have  once 
succeeded  in  getting  rid  in  part  of  the  burthen  of  cultivation, 
and  have  formed  a  body  of  peasant  tenantry,  it  is  in  vain  to 
hope  for  much  steady  superintendance  or  assistance  from 
them.  The  fixed  and  secure  nature  of  their  property,  and 
the  influence  which  it  gives  them  in  the  early  stages  of  society 
over  the  cultivating  class,  that  is,  over  the  great  majority  of 
the  nation,  lead  to  the  formation  of  feelings  and  habits, 
inconsistent  with  a  detailed  attention  to  the  conduct  of 
cultivation  ;  while  they  very  rarely  possess  the  power  and  the 
temper  steadily  to  accumulate  the  means  of  assisting  the 
industry  employed  on  their  estates.  Some  skill,  and  some 
capital,  must  be  found  among  the  very  rudest  cultivators : 
but  the  most  efficient  direction  of  labor,  and  the  accumu- 
lation and  contrivance  of  the  means  to  endow  it  with  the 


144  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

greatest  attainable  power,  seem  to  be  the  peculiar  province, 
the  appointed  task,  of  a  race  of  men,  capitalists,  distinct 
from  both  laborers  and  landlords,  more  capable  of  intellec- 
tual efforts  than  the  lower,  more  willing  to  bring  such  efforts 
to  bear  on  the  improvement  of  the  powers  of  industry,  than 
the  higher,  of  those  classes.  On  the  peculiar  functions  of 
this  third  class  of  men  in  society,  and  of  the  various  effects 
moral,  economical,  and  political,  produced  by  the  multipli- 
cation of  their  numbers  and  their  means,  we  shall  hereafter 
have  to  treat.  Their  absence  from  the  task  of  cultivation, 
which  is  common  to  all  the  wide  classes  of  peasant  tenures, 
prevents  that  perfect  developement  of  the  resources  of  the 
earth,  which  their  skill,  their  contrivance,  and  the  power 
they  exercise  by  the  employment  of  accumulated  resources, 
do  and  can  alone  effect. 

Small  Numbers  of  the  Non-agricultural  Classes. 

Resulting  from  this  imperfect  developement  of  the  powers 
of  the  earth,  will  be  found  a  stunted  growth  of  the  classes  of 
society  unconnected  with  the  soil.  It  is  obvious,  that  the 
relative  numbers  of  those  persons  who  can  be  maintained 
without  agricultural  labor,  must  be  measured  wholly  by  the 
productive  powers  of  the  cultivators.  Where  these  cultivate 
skilfully,  they  obtain  produce  to  maintain  themselves  and 
many  others  ;  where  they  cultivate  less  skilfully,  they  obtain 
produce  sufficient  to  maintain  themselves  and  a  smaller 
number  of  others.  The  relative  numbers  of  the  non-agri- 
cultural classes  will  never  be  so  great,  therefore,  where  the 
resources  of  the  earth  are  developed  with  deficient  or  mod- 
erate skill  and  power,  as  they  are  when  these  resources  are 


vi.]  PEASANT  RENTS  IN  GENERAL.  145 

developed  more  perfectly.  In  France  and  Italy,  the  agri- 
culture of  the  peasant  tenantry  is  good  when  compared  with 
that  of  similar  classes  elsewhere,  and  the  soil  and  climate  are, 
on  the  whole,  excellent ;  yet  the  number  of  non-agriculturists 
is  in  France  only  as  i  to  2,  in  Italy  as  4  to  13,  while  in  Eng- 
land, with  an  inferior  soil  and  climate  (agricultural  climate, 
that  is,)  the  non-agriculturists  are  to  the  cultivators  as  2  to 
i.1  The  relative  numbers  and  influence  of  the  non-agricul- 
tural classes  powerfully  affect,  as  we  have  had  occasion  be- 
fore to  remark,  the  social  and  political  circumstances  of 
different  countries,  and,  indeed,  mainly  decide  what  mate- 
rials each  country  shall  possess,  for  the  formation  of  those 
mixed  constitutions  in  which  the  power  of  the  crown,  and 
of  a  landed  aristocracy,  are  balanced  and  controlled  by  the 
influence  of  numbers,  and  of  property  freed  from  all  depend- 
ence on  the  soil. 

I  shall  not  be  understood  of  course,  as  meaning  to  assert, 
that  the  presence  of  a  large  proportion  of  non-agriculturists 
is  essential  to  the  existence  of  democratic  institutions :  we 
have  abundance  of  instances  to  the  contrary.  But  when  a 
powerful  aristocracy  already  exists  on  the  soil,  as  where  peas- 
ant rents  prevail,  it  needs  must ;  then  the  efficient  introduc- 
tion of  democratic  elements  into  the  constitution,  depends 
almost  entirely  upon  the  numbers  and  property  of  the  non- 
agricultural  classes.  The  indirect  influence  of  peasant  ten- 
ures therefore,  in  limiting  the  numbers  of  the  non-agricultural 

1  In  England,  too,  a  larger  number  of  animals  are  kept  for  pleasure,  and 
a  variety  of  purposes  unconnected  with  cultivation :  the  power  of  feeding 
these  must  be  reckoned,  when  we  are  calculating  the  efficiency  of  her 
agriculture. 

L 


146  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

classes,  must  be  reckoned  among  the  most  important  of  the 
political  results  of  those  tenures. 

Identity  of  the  Interests  of  Landlords  with  those  of  their  Tenantry 
and  the  Community. 

A  little  attention  is  sufficient  to  shew,  that  under  all  the 
forms  of  peasant  tenures,  the  interests  of  the  landlords  are 
indissolubly  connected  with  those  of  their  tenantry  and  of 
the  community  at  large.  The  interest  of  the  state  obviously 
is,  that  the  resources  of  its  territory  should  be  fully  developed 
by  a  class  of  cultivators  free,  rich,  and  prosperous,  and  there- 
fore equal  to  the  task.  The  interest  of  the  tenant  must  ever 
be  to  increase  the  produce  of  the  land,  on  which  produce  he 
feeds,  to  shake  off  the  shackles  of  servile  dependence  :  and 
to  attain  that  form  of  holding  which  leaves  him  most  com- 
pletely his  own  master,  and  presents  the  fewest  obstructions 
to  his  accumulation  of  property. 

The  interests  of  the  landed  proprietor  concur  with  these 
interests  of  the  state  and  the  tenantry. 

There  is  indeed  a  method  by  which  his  revenue  may  be 
increased,  neither  beneficial  to  the  community,  nor  advan- 
tageous to  the  tenant ;  that  is,  by  encroaching  on  the  tenant's 
share  of  the  produce,  while  the  produce  itself  remains  unal- 
tered. But  this  is  a  limited  and  miserable  resource,  which 
contains  within  itself  the  principles  of  a  speedy  stoppage 
and  failure.  That  full  developement  of  the  productive  pow- 
ers of  a  territory,  which  is  essential  to  the  progressive  rise  of 
the  proprietor's  income,  can  never  be  forwarded  by  the  in- 
creasing penury  of  the  cultivators.  While  the  peasant  is  the 
agent  or  principal  instrument  of  production,  the  agriculture 


vi.]  PEASANT  RENTS  IN  GENERAL.  147 

of  a  country  can  never  thrive  with  his  deepening  depression. 
If  the  waste  plains  of  Asia,  and  the  forests  of  Eastern  Europe, 
are  ever  to  produce  to  their  proprietors  a  revenue  at  all  like 
what  similar  quantities  of  land  yield  in  the  better  cultivated 
parts  of  the  world ;  it  is  not  by  increasing  the  penury  of  the 
race  of  peasantry  by  which  they  are  now  loosely  occupied, 
that  such  a  result  will  be  brought  about.  Their  increased 
misery  can  only  stay  the  spread  of  cultivation  and  diminish 
its  powers.  The  miserable  scantiness  of  the  produce  of  a 
great  part  of  the  earth,  is  visibly  mainly  owing  to  the  actual 
poverty  and  degradation  of  the  peasant  cultivators.  But 
the  real  interest  of  the  proprietors  never  can  be  to  snatch  a 
small  gain  from  a  dwindling  fund,  which  at  every  invasion 
of  theirs  is  less  likely  to  be  augmented,  when  they  might 
ensure  a  progressive  increase  from  the  indefinite  augmen- 
tation of  the  fund  itself.  It  is  obviously  therefore  most  ad- 
vantageous to  the  proprietors,  that  their  revenues  should 
increase  from  the  increasing  produce  of  the  land,  and  not 
from1  the  decreasing  means  of  its  cultivators ;  and  so  far 
their  interest  is  clearly  the  same  with  that  of  the  state  and 
the  peasantry. 

And  further,  it  is  no  less  the  interest  of  the  landlords, 
than  it  is  that  of  other  classes  in  the  state,  that  the 
ruder  and  more  oppressive  forms  of  his  contract  with  his 
tenant  should  gradually  be  exchanged  for  others,  more  con- 
sistent with  the  social  and  political  welfare  of  the  cultivators. 
The  landlord  who  receives  labor  rents  must  be  a  farmer 
himself:  the  landlord  of  the  metayer  must  support  most  of 
the  burthens  of  cultivation,  and  share  in  all  its  hazards ; 
the  landlord  of  the  cottier  must  be  exposed  to  frequent 


148  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

losses  from  the  failure  of  the  means  of  his  tenantry,  and 
after  a  certain  point  in  their  depression,  to  considerable 
danger  from  their  desperation.  All  the  advantages  incident 
to  the  position  of  a  landed  proprietor,  are  only  reaped  in 
their  best  shape,  when  his  income  is  fixed,  and  (extraordi- 
nary casualties  excepted)  certain  ;  when  he  is  free  from  any 
share  in  the  burthens  and  hazards  of  cultivation ;  when  with 
the  progress  of  national  improvement  his  property  has  its 
utmost  powers  of  production  brought  into  full  play,  by  a 
race  of  tenants  possessed  of  intellect  and  means  equal  to  the 
task.  The  receiver  of  labor  rents  therefore,  gains  a  point 
when  they  are  changed  to  produce  rents ;  the  receiver  of 
produce  rents  from  a  metayer  gains  a  point  when  they  are 
changed  to  money  rents.  The  landlord  of  cottiers  gains 
a  point  when  they  become  capitalists  ;  and  the  sovereign  of 
the  ryot  cultivators  gains  a  point  when  the  produce  due  from 
them  can  be  commuted  for  fixed  payments  in  money. 
There  is  no  one  step  in  the  prosperous  career  of  a  peasant 
tenantry,  of  any  description,  at  which  the  interests  of  the 
landlords  are  not  best  promoted  by  their  prosperity :  and 
that  in  spite  of  the  admitted  possibility  of  a  stinted  gain  to 
the  proprietors,  founded  on  the  increasing  penury  of  the 
cultivators. 

On  the  Causes  of  the  long  Duration  of  the  Systems  of  Primary  or  Peas- 
ant Rents. 

Perhaps  in  an  enquiry  into  the  nature  and  effects  of  the 
different  systems  of  peasant  rents,  the  most  interesting  tract 
in  the  whole  line  of  investigation,  is  that  in  which  we  seek 
to  discover  the  causes  which  have  kept  them  permanent  and 


vi.]  PEASANT  RENTS  IN  GENERAL.  149 

unchanged,  over  a  large  part  of  the  earth,  through  a  long 
succession  of  ages. 

The  interests  of  the  state,  of  the  proprietors,  of  the 
tenantry  themselves,  are  all  advanced  by  the  progressive 
changes  which  in  prosperous  communities  successively  take 
place  in  the  mode  of  cultivating  the  soil.  And  yet  in  spite 
of  the  ordinary  tendency  of  human  institutions  to  change, 
and  of  the  numerous  interests  which  in  this  instance  com- 
bine to  make  change  desirable,  ages  have  travelled  past,  and 
a  great  portion  of  the  earth's  surface  is  still  tilled  by  races 
of  peasantry,  holding  the  land  by  tenures  and  on  conditions 
similar  to  those  imposed  upon  the  persons  in  whose  hands 
the  task  of  cultivation  was  first  placed.  Such  are  the  serfs 
of  the  east,  the  metayers  who  cover  the  west  of  Europe,  and 
the  ryots  who  occupy  the  whole  of  Asia. 

When  we  look  at  those  countries  in  which  peasant  rents 
have  at  any  time  prevailed,  and  observe  their  actual  condi- 
tion with  reference  to  past,  or  probable  changes,  those  rents 
shew  themselves  in  four  unequal  masses.  From  the  first 
division,  they  have  already  passed ;  spontaneous  changes, 
gradually  brought  about,  in  slow  succession,  have  obliterated 
all  marks  of  the  earlier  and  ruder  forms  of  holding.  A  race 
of  capitalists  providing  the  stock,  advancing  the  wages  of 
labor,  and  paying  fixed  money  rents,  have  taken  entire  pos- 
session of  the  task  of  cultivation,  from  which  the  proprietors 
are  completely  extricated.  The  portion  of  the  earth's  sur- 
face on  which  this  has  taken  place  is  small.  It  comprises 
England,  the  greater  part  of  Scotland,  a  part  of  the  kingdom 
of  the  Netherlands,  and  spots  in  France,  Italy,  Spain,  and 
Germany.  In  another  part  of  the  globe,  we  see  the  causes 


150  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

which  have  elsewhere  produced  the  changes  just  referred 
to,  still  actually  at  work,  but  their  results  yet  incomplete. 
Without  any  deliberate  purpose  on  the  part  of  any  class, 
changes  are  quietly  and  silently  taking  place,  through  which 
the  agricultural  population  are  advancing  to  a  position 
similar  to  that  of  the  English  farmers  and  laborers.  This 
process  may  be  observed  in  the  west  of  Germany :  there 
the  serfs  have  for  some  ages  been  going  through  a  sluggish 
process  of  transmutation  into  leibeigeners,  hereditary  tenants 
with  fixed  labor  rents,  and  not  chained  to  the  soil.  The 
leibeigeners  are  slowly  assuming  the  character  of  meyers 
subject  to  an  unalterable  produce  rent ;  a  very  few  steps  in 
advance  will  range  the  meyer  by  the  side  of  the  English 
copyholder ;  and  then  all  the  substantial  effects  of  their  for- 
mer condition,  as  tenants  paying  labor  rents,  will  have  disap- 
peared. 

There  is  this  material  difference,  however,  between  the 
past  state  of  England,  and  the  present  state  of  Germany. 
In  England,  the  tenants  who  on  the  disuse  of  the  labor  of 
the  serf  tenantry,  took  charge  of  the  cultivation  of  the  do- 
mains of  the  proprietors,  were  found  on  the  land  ;  they  were 
yeomen.  In  Germany,  the  tenants  of  the  domains  are  offsets 
from  the  non-agricultural  population,  and  their  capital  has 
been  accumulated  in  employments  distinct  from  agriculture. 
In  England,  the  source  from  which  the  new  tenantry  pro- 
ceeded, was  large,  and  their  spread  rapid.  In  Germany,  the 
source  is  smaller,  and  the  creation  of  such  a  tenantry  must 
be  the  work  of  a  much  longer  period.  But  the  change  has 
been  slow  in  both  countries.  Cultivation  by  the  labor  of  the 
manorial  tenants  was  very  long  before  it  finally  disappeared 


vi.]  PEASANT  RENTS  IN  GENERAL.  151 

from  England :  the  legal  obligation  to  perform  such  labor 
has  glided  out  of  sight  almost  within  memory.  So  too  in 
those  parts  of  Germany  in  which  the  progress  of  the  relations 
between  the  proprietors  and  the  tenantry  is  left  to  take  its 
own  course,  it  seems  highly  probable  that  a  very  long  period 
mil  yet  elapse  before  labor  rents  wholly  disappear.  Spon- 
taneous changes  in  the  habits  of  nations  usually  take  place 
slowly,  and  occupy  ages  in  their  progress. 

Gradual  alterations  in  the  mode  of  holding  and  cultivating 
land,  occupied  by  a  peasant  tenantry,  are  not  confined  to 
the  countries  in  which  labor  rents  prevail :  metayers  have, 
in  some  districts,  given  place  to  capitalist  tenants,  and  in 
others  are  to  be  found  in  a  state  of  transition ;  owning  part 
of  the  capital,  paying  sometimes  a  fixed  quantity  of  produce, 
sometimes  a  money  rent,  and  preparing,  evidently,  to  take 
upon  themselves  all  the  burthens  and  hazards  of  culti- 
vation. 

The  two  divisions  of  rents  which  we  have  just  noticed, 
comprise,  jointly,  but  a  small  portion  of  the  earth.  In 
them,  as  we  have  seen,  a  movement  in  advance  of  the 
cultivators  themselves  has  taken  place,  which  has  proceeded 
from  the  insensible  improvement  of  their  condition,  and 
has  ended  in  one,  and  is  likely  to  end  in  the  other,  in  an 
alteration  in  the  form  of  rents.  But  in  that  greater  portion 
of  the  earth  which  remains  to  be  noticed,  there  has  been 
no  spontaneous  movement  in  advance,  and  there  is  no 
tendency  to  insensible  change  to  be  perceived.  Yet  in 
a  small  division  of  that  larger  portion  very  rapid  alterations 
are  in  progress,  in  a  different  manner,  and  from  a  different 
cause.  And  this  constitutes  a  third  division  of  peasant 


152  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

rents,  when  classed  with  reference  to  their  tendencies 
to  change. 

In  the  eastern  part  of  Europe,  the  people  have  never 
reached  the  means,  or  even  the  wish,  of  elevating  their 
condition :  the  mode  of  cultivation  and  the  relations 
between  the  proprietors  and  their  tenantry,  might,  ap- 
parently, as  far  as  the  exertions  of  the  cultivators  themselves 
are  concerned,  have  continued  unchanged  while  the  earth 
lasts. 

But,  in  these  countries,  the  intellect  and  knowledge 
of  the  higher  classes  are  far  in  advance  of  the  apathy, 
and  stationary  ignorance,  of  the  lower.  The  landed  pro- 
prietors have  been  able  to  contrast  the  condition  of  their 
country  and  their  property,  with  the  state  of  more  improved 
nations,  and  have  become  animated  by  a  zealous  desire 
of  altering  the  condition  of  the  peasantry,  and  the  mode 
of  conducting  agriculture.  This  common  spirit  has  pro- 
duced, and  is  daily  producing,  a  variety  of  changes  ;  differ- 
ing in  detail  with  the  actual  circumstances  of  different 
districts,  but  having  two  common  objects ;  namely,  the 
elevation  of  the  character  and  circumstances  of  the  present 
peasant  cultivators,  and  the  improvement  of  agriculture 
on  the  domains  held  by  the  proprietors. 

We  have  already  seen,  that  the  ultimate  results  of  these 
various  changes  are  yet  problematical;  that  whatever  they 
may  be,  a  long  period  of  time  will  probably  elapse,  before 
they  are  fully  developed. 

Abstracting,  however,  altogether  from  the  three  districts 
we  have  been  considering,  namely,  that  in  which  peasant 
rents  have  been  actually  superseded,  that  from  which  they 


vi.]  PEASANT  RENTS  IN  GENERAL.  153 

are  slowly  disappearing,  and  that  from  which  an  attempt 
is  making  forcibly  to  expel  them ;  there  still  remains  a  large 
fourth  district :  a  vast  unbroken  mass,  which  no  movement 
from  within,  and  no  influence  from  without,  have  yet 
brought  to  give  signs  of  approaching  change. 

As  the  attention  is  naturally  more  caught  by  what  is 
stirring  and  in  motion,  than  by  things  of  greater  magnitude 
and  importance  which  are  inert  and  stationary,  the  countries 
in  which  alterations  in  the  mode  of  conducting  agriculture 
are  in  progress,  attract  observation  much  more  readily  than 
those  which  really  present  a  more  curious  and  interesting 
phenomenon ;  those  in  which  the  forms  of  occupying  the 
soil  first  adopted,  and  the  systems  and  relations  of  society 
founded  on  them,  still  prevail ;  in  which  the  face  of  society 
has  undergone  for  centuries  as  little  alteration  as  the  face  of 
nature,  and  men  seem  as  unchangeable  as  the  regions  they 
inhabit.  The  Ryots  throughout  Asia,  and  the  peasants  in  a 
very  considerable  portion  of  Europe,  are  precisely  what  they 
have  ever  been.  In  spite  of  the  fluctuations  natural  to  all 
human  institutions,  and  of  the  obvious  disadvantages  of  their 
systems  of  cultivation,  still  they  endure,  and  are  likely  to 
endure,  unless  some  general  movement  takes  place  on  the 
part  of  the  higher  classes,  dragging  the  lower  from  their 
apathy  and  poverty;  or  some  insensible  improvement  of 
their  condition,  enables  the  lower  classes  themselves  to  begin 
a  forward  progress. 

Efforts  of  the  higher  classes,  to  introduce  forcibly  im- 
provements into  the  condition  of  the  lower,  are  little  likely 
ever  to  become  general  and  systematic,  over  any  great  pro- 
portion of  the  earth's  surface.  To  suppose  a  general 


154  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

diffusion  of  political  knowledge  and  philosophy,  dispelling 
everywhere  the  sluggish  dreams  of  selfishness,  may  be  a 
pleasing  reverie,  but  can  hardly  afford  any  ground  for 
rational  anticipation.  The  proprietors  of  the  serfs  of  East- 
ern Europe  have  made,  it  is  true,  vigorous  efforts,  but  they 
were  stimulated  by  the  intolerable  burthens  and  embarrass- 
ments which  the  old  system  brought  upon  themselves,  and 
nothing  short  of  such  a  stimulus  would  make  such  efforts 
general.  The  Italian  or  Spanish  nobles  shew  no  symptoms 
of  being  roused  to  take  the  lead  in  altering  the  terms  on 
which  their  estates  are  used  :  even  the  French  noblesse, 
before  the  revolution,  were  quite  passive  under  the  evils  and 
losses  which  the  condition  of  their  metayer  tenantry  made 
common.  The  native  princes  of  Asia  are  little  likely  to  be 
reformers  in  the  agricultural  economy  of  their  country. 
We  see  how  little  the  Anglo-Indian  government  has  effected 
in  this  respect. 

But  if  the  higher  classes  are.  little  likely  to  display  general 
activity  as  reformers,  then,  as  the  foundation  of  future 
improvements  in  the  circumstances  of  the  cultivators  of  a 
large  part  of  the  world,  there  remain  only  such  alterations 
for  the  better,  as  may  insensibly  take  place  in  the  condition 
of  the  lower  classes  :  such  benefits  as  they  may  win  for  them- 
selves, amidst  the  silent  lapse  of  time  and  every  day  events. 

If  this  is  seen,  it  must  be  perceived  at  once,  that  the 
actual  state  of  penury  and  misery,  which  makes  the  culti- 
vators helpless,  and  keeps  them  destitute,  is  the  great 
obstacle  to  the  commencement  of  national  improvement ; 
the  heavy  weight  which  keeps  stationary  the  wealth  and 
number  and  civilization  of  a  very  large  part  of  the  earth. 


vi.]  PEASANT  RENTS  IN  GENERAL.  155 

I  believe  this,  indeed,  to  be  only  one  case  of  a  general 
truth,  with  which,  in  our  future  progress,  we  shall  become 
more  familiar,  that  the  degradation  and  abject  poverty  of 
the  lower  classes,  can  never  be  found  in  combination  with 
national  wealth  and  political  strength.  But  when  the  lower 
classes  exist  in  the  character  of  peasant  cultivators,  this  is 
more  strikingly  true  than  elsewhere.  In  poor  countries,  of 
which  the  non-agricultural  population  bears  a  very  small 
proportion  to  the  husbandmen,  it  is  usually  in  vain  to 
expect,  that  the  additional  capital  and  skill  necessary  to 
effect  great  national  improvements  in  cultivation,  can  be 
generated  any  where  but  on  the  land  itself,  and  among  its 
actual  occupiers.  If  once,  therefore,  the  peasantry  are  so 
far  reduced  in  their  circumstances  and  character,  as  to  have 
neither  the  means,  nor,  after  a  time,  the  wish  or  hope,  to 
acquire  property  and  improve  their  condition ;  the  state  of 
agricultural  production,  and  the  relative  numbers  of  the 
non-agricultural  and  other  classes  must  be  nearly  stationary ; 
and,  under  such  circumstances,  all  plans  for  the  advance- 
ment of  agriculture,  and  improvement  of  the  condition  of 
the  peasants,  which  are  not  founded  on  the  principle  that 
the  means  of  the  cultivator  are  to  be,  in  the  first  place, 
enlarged,  prove,  almost  necessarily,  abortive.  Laws  which 
confer  upon  him  political  rights  and  security,  are  in  them- 
selves a  mere  dead  letter,  while  poverty  weighs  him  down, 
and  keeps  him  fast  in  his  position.  The  French  metayers 
had  long  ceased  to  be  subject  to  the  arbitrary  power  of  the 
proprietors :  their  persons  and  properties  were,  with  some 
exceptions,  as  secure  as  those  of  any  class  in  France ;  yet 
their  condition,  and  the  character  of  their  cultivation  were, 


156  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

at  best,  stationary,  and,  in  some  districts,  certainly  declin- 
ing. It  was  the  one  great  object  of  the  French  economists, 
to  substitute  for  this  class  of  cultivators,  capitalists  paying 
money  rents,  and  the  fault  of  their  plans,  for  accomplishing 
their  purpose,  was  this,  that  instead  of  recommending 
measures  for  the  general  transformation  of  the  metayers 
themselves  into  capitalists,  they  founded  all  their  hopes  of 
effecting  the  change  they  thought  so  all  important,  on  the 
removal  of  the  metayers,  and  the  gradual  spread  of  capital- 
ists, from  the  districts  in  which  they  had  already  established 
themselves.  This  was  a  process,  which  could  only  have 
gone  on  at  all  under  a  very  favourable  state  of  the  markets 
for  agricultural  produce,  and  which,  it  will  be  clear,  must 
have  taken  ages  to  complete,  if  we  consider  the  small  part 
of  France  occupied  by  capitalists,  and  the  very  large  pro- 
portion of  her  surface  tilled  by  metayers.  The  transforma- 
tion of  the  metayers  themselves  was  less  difficult,  but  it  was 
opposed  by  the  moral  obstacle  we  are  speaking  of,  which 
forms  the  real  impediment  to  the  progress  of  improvement, 
under  all  the  forms  of  peasant  rent.  It  required  a  distinct 
sacrifice  of  immediate  income,  on  the  part  of  the  proprietors 
or  the  government.  The  metayers  were  oppressed  by  taxes, 
more  than  by  rent :  the  share  of  the  landlord  in  the  produce 
had  never  been  increased  ;  but  the  exactions  of  government 
from  the  tenant's  portion,  had  reduced  him  to  the  state  of 
misery  which  Turgot  describes.  To  enable  the  cultivators 
then  to  amend  their  circumstances,  to  accumulate,  and  ulti- 
mately to  change  their  form  of  holding,  it  was  necessary  to 
begin  by  lightening  the  actual  pressure  on  them :  to  effect 
this,  either  the  government  must  have  remitted  part  of  its 


vi.]  PEASANT  RENTS  IN  GENERAL.  157 

taxes,  or  the  proprietors  have  consented  to  pay  part  of  them, 
and  to  relinquish  thus  a  part  of  their  own  revenue.  On  the 
side  of  the  state,  public  necessity,  partly  real,  and  partly 
assumed  by  ministers  who  did  not  foresee  to  what  point  they 
were  driving  the  population ;  on  the  part  of  the  proprietors, 
what  Turgot  is  pleased  to  call  the  illusions  of  self  interest  ill 
understood,  prevented  such  a  remission  of  the  burthens  of 
the  peasantry  as  might  have  enabled  them  to  make  a  start 
in  advance :  they  continued  therefore  poor,  inefficient, 
stationary;  and  the  agricultural  resources  of  the  state 
were  stunted  and  stopt  in  their  growth  with  the  peasan- 
try. In  spite  of  the  miseries  of  that  revolution,  through 
which  the  freedom  of  the  cultivators  from  their  ancient 
oppressions  has  been  earnt,  the  revenues  of  the  body  of 
agriculturists  have  so  increased,  that  France  consumes  more 
than  three  times  the  quantity  of  manufactured  commodities 
she  did  before  the  revolution,  and  her  non-agricultural  popu- 
lation has  doubled.  These  facts  tell  at  once  how  much  she 
lost  in  strength  and  wealth,  by  the  feebleness  of  the  agri- 
cultural efforts  of  the  peasantry  under  the  old  regime.  But 
convulsions  like  that  which  in  France  destroyed  the  relations 
between  landlord  and  tenant,  and  converted  a  large  portion 
of  the  metayers  into  small  proprietors,  are  not  to  be  counted 
on  in  the  ordinary  course  of  human  affairs ;  and  when  once 
either  the  exactions  of  landlords,  or  of  the  state,  or  indeed 
any  other  circumstances,  have  reduced  a  peasant  tenantry  to 
penury,  the  same  difficulty  constantly  opposes  itself  to  the 
commencement  of  improvement.  No  one  is  willing  to 
make,  no  one  ordinarily  thinks  of  making,  a  direct  sacrifice 
of  revenue,  for  the  purpose  of  augmenting  their  actual 


158  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

means ;  and  nothing  short  of  that  will  enable  them  to  start. 
In  India,  the  Anglo-Indian  government  have  been  creditably 
ready  to  give  more  security  and  more  civil  rights  to  their 
Indian  subjects  than  they  before  enjoyed;  but  when  it 
became  a  question  of  direct  sacrifice  of  revenue,  notwith- 
standing the  clearest  conviction  in  their  own  minds,  that 
the  population  would  be  increased,  cultivation  improved, 
and  the  wealth  and  resources  of  their  territories  rapidly 
multiplied,  still  the  exigencies  of  the  government  would  not 
permit  them  to  remit  the  actual  rents  to  the  amount  of  25 
per  cent.,  or  15  per  cent.,  even  to  ensure  all  these  confessed 
ulterior  advantages ;  and  therefore  they  concluded  that  the 
state  of  cultivation,  and  the  poverty  of  the  tenantry  must 
continue  as  they  were.1 

From  the  same  causes,  the  posterity  of  the  emancipated 
serfs  of  eastern  Europe  are  shut  out  from  the  possibility 
of  forming  a  body  of  capitalist  tenants,  fitted  to  take  charge 
of  the  cultivation  of  the  domains  of  the  proprietors.  Per- 
sonal freedom,  hereditary  possession  of  their  allotments, 
rights  and  privileges  in  abundance,  the  landlords  and 
sovereigns  are  willing  to  grant ;  and  it  would  be  extrava- 
gant to  say  these  grants  are  worth  nothing :  but  that  which 
is  necessary  to  enable  the  peasants  to  profit  by  their  new 
position,  that  is,  an  immediate  relaxation  of  the  pressure 
upon  them,  an  increase  of  their  revenue,  proceeding  from 
a  direct  sacrifice  of  income  on  the  part  of  either  the  crown 
or  the  landlord,  is  something  much  more  difficult  to  be 
accomplished.  In  Prussia,  the  rent  charge  fixed  upon  the 
serf,  now  constituted  a  proprietor,  forms,  as  we  have  seen. 

1  See  Buchanan's  edition  of  Smith,  Appendix,  p.  86. 


vi.]  PEASANT  RENTS  IN  GENERAL.  159 

one  of  the  heaviest  rents  known  in  Europe.  And  among 
the  various  schemes  for  improving  the  condition  of  the  peas- 
antry, afloat  in  the  east  of  Europe,  I  know  but  of  one,  that 
of  the  Livonian  nobility,  in  which  a  direct  sacrifice  of 
revenue  on  the  part  of  the  landlords  is  contemplated  as 
the  basis  of  the  expected  amelioration.1 

It  is  unquestionably  the  actual  penury  of  the  peasants, 
and  the  little  which  has  been  done  to  enable  them  to  take 
the  first  steps  to  emerge  from  it,  which  have,  in  a  great 
measure,  frustrated  all  the  hopes  of  augmented  wealth  and 
improved  civilization,  which  have  been  entertained  by  the 
benevolent  reformers  of  the  north.  It  is  this  too,  which 
has  been  the  cause  of  the  apathy  with  which  the  peasant 
has  received  the  gift  of  political  rights,  and  which  has  made 
the  various  boons  bestowed  upon  him  almost  nominal. 

Abstracting  then  from  the  efforts  of  landlords  or  govern- 
ments, and  looking  at  the  whole  extent  of  that  part  of  the 
globe  which  is  at  present  languishing  under  the  inefficient 
efforts  of  a  depressed  peasant  tenantry,  it  appears  that  when 
once  their  circumstances  have  become  reduced  and  their 
poverty  extreme,  nothing  but  a  relaxation  of  the  terms 
of  their  contract  with  the  landlord,  or  a  diminution  of 
the  burthens  imposed  by  the  state,  can  give  them  an 
opportunity  of  making  that  first  movement  in  advance 
which  must  be  the  initiative  of  their  new  career.  The 
difficulty  of  procuring  such  a  relaxation,  arising  often  from 
the  necessities  or  the  blindness,  more  rarely  from  the 

1  In  that  instance,  the  tenant  who  before  owed  half  his  labor  to  the  land- 
lord, is  protected  against  the  demand  of  more  than  two  days  in  the  week, 
or  one-third. 


160  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

pure  selfishness,  of  the  landlords  or  sovereigns,  is  the  real 
cause  of  the  stagnation  and  inefficiency  of  the  art  of  agricul- 
ture, and  of  the  duration  of  the  present  forms  of  holding  over 
a  great  part  of  the  world.  In  the  hands  of  a  peasantry 
thoroughly  depressed,  cultivation  may  spread,  but  its  powers 
will  not  increase ;  the  people  may  multiply,  but  the  relative 
numbers  of  the  non-agricultural  classes  will  not  become 
much  greater ;  and  abstracting  from  the  increase  of  gross 
numbers,  the  wealth  and  strength  of  the  population,  and 
the  elements  of  political  institutions,  undergo  no  alteration. 

Such  then,  is  the  miserable  cause  which  has  maintained 
the  rude  forms  of  primitive  holding  so  long  and  so  exten- 
sively unchanged,  and  which  seems  unhappily  to  promise 
them  a  long  period  of  future  dominion,  over  too  many 
wide  districts  of  the  earth. 

We  may  observe  on  some  small  spots,  of  which  England 
is  one,  the  effects  of  a  different  system.  Agriculture  is 
further  advanced  towards  perfection,  and  hence  arises  a 
capacity  of  supporting  much  more  numerous  non-agricult- 
ural classes,  which  afford  abundant  and  excellent  materials 
for  a  balanced  form  of  government ;  hence  too,  intellect, 
knowledge,  leisure,  and  all  the  indications  and  elements  of 
high  civilization  multiplied  and  concentrated.  Were  the 
whole  of  the  earth's  surface  cultivated  with  like  efficiency, 
how  different  would  be  the  aggregate  of  the  commercial 
means,  political  institutions,  the  intellect  and  civilization 
of  the  inhabitants  of  our  planet ! 

The  advancing  wealth  of  a  body  of  peasantry  does  not, 
however,  always  lead  either  to  the  permanent  improvement 
of  their  own  condition,  or  to  an  alteration  in  the  constitu- 


VI.]  PEASANT  RENTS  IN  GENERAL.  161 

ent  elements  of  society,  or  in  the  degree  of  its  civilization. 
A  rapid  increase  of  the  numbers  of  the  cultivators,  and 
after  a  time  a  peasantry  equally  poor  as  at  first,  and  more 
numerous,  are  sometimes  the  result  of  an  augmentation  of 
the  revenues  of  a  peasant  tenantry.  More  than  one  favor- 
able circumstance  must  concur,  to  make  the  commencement 
of  their  prosperity  a  basis  for  a  general  advance  of  the 
nation,  and  for  the  progressive  augmentation  of  the  various 
elements  of  its  strength  and  civilization.  What  those  cir- 
cumstances are,  we  shall  have  hereafter  to  observe,  when 
examining  the  causes,  which  at  different  stages,  and  in  differ- 
ent positions  of  society,  promote  or  retard  improved  habits 
in  the  body  of  the  people.  At  present  it  is  enough  if  we 
see,  that  the  long  endurance  and  stationary  state  of  peasant 
tenures  over  a  great  part  of  the  world,  are  mainly  attribu- 
table to  the  state  of  poverty  in  which  the  cultivators  have 
so  long  found  themselves:  —  a  state  of  poverty,  which 
while  it  lasts,  effectually  prevents  any  movements  in  ad- 
vance from  originating  with  the  peasants  themselves,  and 
which  can  only  be  relieved  by  such  sacrifices  on  the  part 
of  other  classes,  as  they  are  rarely  able  and  willing  to  make. 

While  we  have  been  reviewing  the  different  classes  of 
peasant  rents,  those  facts  have  been  studiously  dwelt  upon 
and  reproduced,  which  shew  that  improvement  in  the  effi- 
ciency of  agriculture,  followed  by  an  increase  of  the  terri- 
torial produce  of  a  country,  and  consequently  of  its  general 
wealth  and  strength,  is  the  foundation  on  which  a  perma- 
nent and  progressive  increase  in  the  revenues  of  the  landed 
proprietors  can  best  sustain  itself. 

Strange  opinions  as  to  a  necessary  opposition  between 


162  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

the  interests  of  the  proprietors  of  the  soil,  and  those  of  the 
rest  of  the  community  and  of  the  state,  have  lately  been 
current.  The  fallacy  of  these  it  was  thought  would  be 
more  easily  and  more  distinctly  exposed  by  a  simple  expo- 
sition of  facts,  as  they  exist  in  the  world  around  us,  than 
by  following  those  who  have  promulgated  such  opinions, 
into  a  labyrinth  of  abstract  argument.  The  dogmas  alluded 
to  are  sufficiently  familiar  to  all  readers  of  later  writers  on 
Political  Economy.  Their  substance  and  their  spirit  may 
be  collected  from  the  following  passages.  "  The  capacity 
"of  a  country  to  support  and  employ  laborers,  is  in  no 
"  degree  dependent  on  advantageousness  of  situation,  rich- 
"  ness  of  soil,  or  extent  of  territory." J  "  It  appears,  there- 
"  fore,  that  in  the  earliest  stages  of  society,  and  where  only 
"  the  best  lands  are  cultivated,  no  rent  is  ever  paid.  The 
"  landlords,  as  such,  do  not  begin  to  share  in  the  produce 
"  of  the  soil  until  it  becomes  necessary  to  cultivate  lands  of 
"an  inferior  degree  of  fertility,  or  to  apply  capital  to  the 
"  superior  lands  with  a  diminishing  return.  Whenever  this  is 
"  the  case,  rent  begins  to  be  paid  ;  and  it  continues  to  increase 
"  according  as  cultivation  is  extended  over  poorer  soils  ;  and 
"  diminishes  according  as  those  poorer  soils  are  thrown  out 
"  of  cultivation." 2  "  An  increase  of  rent  is  not,  therefore,  as 
"is  very  generally  supposed,  occasioned  by  improvements 
"  in  agriculture,  or  by  an  increase  in  the  fertility  of  the  soil. 
"  It  results  entirely  from  the  necessity  of  resorting,  as  popu- 
"  lation  increases,  to  soils  of  a  decreasing  degree  of  fertility. 
"  Rent  varies  in  an  inverse  proportion  to  the  amount  of 

1  Macculloch's  Principles  of  Political  Economy,  p.  327. 

2  Ibid.  p.  282. 


vi.]  PEASANT  RENTS  IN  GENERAL.  163 

"  produce  obtained  by  means  of  the  capital  and  labor  em- 
"  ployed  in  cultivation,  that  is,  it  increases  when  the  profits 
"  of  agricultural  labor  diminish,  and  diminishes  when  they 
"increase."1  "The  rise  of  rent  is  always  the  effect  of  the 
"  increasing  wealth  of  the  country,  and  of  the  difficulty  of 
"  providing  for  its  augmented  population.  It  is  a  symptom, 
"but  it  is  never  a  cause  of  wealth."2  "Nothing  can  raise 
"rent,  but  a  demand  for  new  land  of  an  inferior  quality, 
"  or  some  cause,  which  shall  occasion  an  alteration  in  the 
"relative  fertility  of  the  land  already  under  cultivation."3 
"  The  interest  of  the  landlord  is  always  opposed  to  that 
"of  the  consumer  and  manufacturer."4  "The  dealings 
"between  the  landlord  and  the  public  are  not  like  dealings 
"in  trade,  whereby  both  the  seller  and  the  buyer  may 
"  equally  be  said  to  gain,  but  the  loss  is  wholly  on  one  side, 
"  and  the  gain  wholly  on  the  other." 5  "  Rent  then  is  a 
"  creation  of  value,  but  not  a  creation  of  wealth ;  it  adds 
"  nothing  to  the  resources  of  a  country,  it  does  not  enable 
"  it  to  maintain  fleets  and  armies ;  for  the  country  would 
"have  a  greater  disposeable  fund  if  its  lands  were  of  a 
"  better  quality,  and  it  could  employ  the  same  capital  with- 
"out  generating  a  rent.  It  must  then  be  admitted,  that 
"  Mr.  Sismondi  and  Mr.  Buchanan,  for  both  their  opinions 
"  were  substantially  the  same,  were  correct,  when  they  con- 
"  sidered  rent  as  a  value  purely  nominal,  and  as  forming  no 
"  addition  to  the  national  wealth,  but  merely  as  a  transfer 


1  Macculloch's  Principles  of  Political  Economy,  p.  269. 

2  Ricardo's  Political  Economy,  2nd  Edit.  p.  62. 

8  Ibid.  p.  518.  4  Ibid.  p.  423. 

6  Ibid.  p.  424. 


164  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

"  of  value,  advantageous  only  to  the  landlords,  and  propor- 
"  tionally  injurious  to  the  consumer." * 

The  utter  fallacy  of  these  opinions,  when  applied  to  any 
class  of  peasant  rents,  has  been  shewn  separately  for  each 
class  in  the  course  of  the  remarks  which  have  already  been 
made  :  viz.  for  labor  rents,  at  p.  52,  for  metayers,  at  p.  92, 
for  ryots,  at  p.  125,  and  for  cottier  rents  at  p.  139. 

But  let  us  for  a  moment  picture  to  ourselves  the  effects 
of  an  address,  by  a  philosopher  of  this  school,  to  an 
assembly  composed  of  sovereign  proprietors  of  territories 
occupied  by  ryots,  and  of  the  landholders  of  countries 
cultivated  by  serfs,  metayers,  or  cottiers.  He  would  assure 
them,  from  Mr.  Macculloch,  that  the  extent  and  richness 
of  the  tracts  of  country  they  might  own,  affected  in  no 
degree  their  power  of  supporting  and  employing  an  indus- 
trious population :  that  in  the  earliest  stages  of  society 
(being  those  with  which  they  are  the  most  familiar)  no  rents 
are  ever  paid  :  that  they  only  begin  to  be  paid  when  it 
becomes  necessary  to  cultivate  lands  of  an  inferior  degree 
of  fertility.  He  would  further  inform  the  landholders,  that 
no  improvements  of  their  income  could  ever  by  possi- 
bility originate  in  improvements  in  agriculture,  or  in  an 
increased  fertility  of  the  soil.  He  would  tell  them  too, 
that  every  augmentation  of  their  rental  must  result  entirely 
from  the  necessity  of  resorting,  as  population  increased,  to 
soils  of  a  decreasing  degree  of  fertility.  That  the  decrepi- 
tude of  agriculture,  and  the  prosperity  of  the  owners  of 
the  land,  advanced  always  hand  in  hand ;  that  their 
revenues  must  vary  always  in  an  inverse  proportion  to  the 

1  Ricardo's  Political  Economy,  2nd  Edit.  p.  501. 


vi.]  PEASANT  RENTS  IN  GENERAL.  165 

amount  of  produce  obtained  by  means  of  the  capital  and 
labor  employed  in  cultivation,  and  that  their  rents,  there- 
fore, would  increase  as  the  profits  of  agricultural  labor 
diminished,  and  would  diminish  as  the  profits  of  agricul- 
tural labor  increased. 

The  teacher  might  next  take  Mr.  Ricardo's  for  his  text- 
book, and  after  enforcing  his  dogmas  from  this  parent 
source,  he  might  proceed  farther  with  his  revelations,  and 
expound  to  his  audience,  that  their  interests  as  landlords 
were  always  opposed  to  those  of  the  non-agricultural 
classes  of  the  community,  that  the  increase  of  their  share 
of  the  produce  of  the  soil  was  a  creation  of  value  but  not 
a  creation  of  wealth ;  that  such  an  increase  added  nothing 
to  the  general  stock  of  riches,  nothing  to  the  common 
resources  of  the  state,  nothing  to  its  ability  to  maintain 
its  public  establishments. 

We  may  imagine  surely  the  amazement  of  the  listening 
circle  of  landholders  of  various  descriptions.  They  would 
know  that  they  were  surrounded,  as  their  forefathers  had 
been,  by  a  peasant  population  yielding  a  part  of  their 
produce  or  their  labor,  as  a  tribute  for  the  use  of  the  ground 
from  which  they  raised  their  food,  and  to  which  they 
must  cling  or  die.  The  lords  of  the  soil  would  feel  there- 
fore, that  their  revenue,  as  landed  proprietors,  owed  neither 
its  origin  nor  its  continuance  to  the  existence  of  gradations 
in  the  qualities  of  land.  They  would  know  that,  as  far  as  their 
experience  had  gone,  with  improvements  in  agriculture,  and 
with  the  increase  of  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  the  amount  of  prod- 
uce which  formed  their  annual  rents  had  steadily  increased, 
and  they  would  have  found  that  they  became  wealthier  as 


166  PEASANT  RENTS.  [CH. 

the  labor  of  their  peasant  tenantry  produced  more  from  the 
earth,  and  that  they  became  poorer  as  it  produced  less.  It 
would  be  impossible  for  them  to  doubt,  that  their  power  of 
giving  employment  and  support  to  a  population  of  laboring 
cultivators,  depended  mainly  on  the  quantity  and  quality  of 
the  land  at  their  disposal.  They  could  not  shut  their  eyes 
to  the  physical  fact,  that  increasing  produce  converted  into 
increased  rents,  constituted  a  fresh  creation  of  material 
riches.  They  could  only  feel  bewildered,  when  they  were 
told,  that  in  the  case  of  such  an  increase,  though  there 
might  be  a  creation  of  value,  there  could  not  be  a 
creation  of  wealth.  They  must  be  aware  that  the  distri- 
bution of  their  revenue  was  the  direct  source  of  the 
maintenance  of  the  greater  part  of  the  non- agricultural 
classes  of  the  population  amidst  which  they  lived ;  they 
could  not  hear,  without  astonishment,  that  the  increase 
of  their  revenue  was  a  misfortune  to  those  classes.  Finally, 
observing  that  in  ryot  monarchies  the  fleets  and  armies  of 
the  state  were  wholly  maintained  from  the  rents  of  the 
sovereign  proprietor,  and  that  in  serf  and  metayer  coun- 
tries, rents  always  contributed  more  or  less  to  similar 
purposes ;  they  would  listen  with  amazement  to  the  doc- 
trine, that  the  increase  of  the  territorial  revenues  of  a  state, 
added  in  no  case  any  thing  to  its  public  strength,  or  to  its 
ability  to  maintain  its  military  establishments. 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine,  that  among  a  circle  full  of 
such  recollections  our  lecturer  would  make  converts.  His 
audience  would  be  apt  to  believe,  that  the  philosopher  they 
were  listening  to  must  have  fallen  from  some  other  planet : 
that  the  scene  of  his  experience  must  have  differed  widely 


vi.]  PEASANT  RENTS  IN  GENERAL.  167 

from  the  scenes  of  theirs,  and  that  it  was  quite  impossible, 
the  various  propositions  he  was  endeavouring  to  impress 
upon  them,  could  have  been  derived  from  a  review  of  the 
facts  with  which  they  were  daily  familiar. 

In  truth,  it  is  not  easy  to  read  any  of  the  productions  of 
this  school  of  writers,  without  seeing,  that  their  system  as 
to  rent,  is  derived  exclusively  from  an  examination  of  the 
class  of  farmers'  rents.  And  this  class  (however  interesting 
to  us  as  Englishmen)  has  already  been  stated  not  to  extend 
-itself  over  one-hundredth  part  of  the  cultivated  surface  of 
the  earth. 


APPENDIX. 


I.    PAGE  4. 

Narrative  of  a  Visit  to  Brazil,  Chili,  Peru,  and  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  during  the  Years  1821  and  1822,  by  Charles  Farquhar 
Mathison,  Esq.  p.  449.  —  The  King  then  is  a  complete  autocrat 
—  all  power,  all  property,  all  persons  are  at  his  disposal:  the 
chiefs  receive  grants  of  land  from  him,  which  they  divide  and  let 
out  again  in  lots  to  their  dependants,  who  cultivate  it  for  the  use 
of  the  chief,  reserving  a  portion  for  their  own  subsistence.  The 
cultivators  are  not  paid  for  their  labour,  nor,  on  the  other  hand, 
do  they  pay  a  regular  rent  for  the  land.  They  are  expected  to 
send  presents  of  pigs,  poultry,  tarrow,  and  other  provisions,  to 
the  chief,  from  time  to  time,  together  with  any  little  sums  of 
money  which  they  may  have  acquired  in-  trade,  or  any  other  prop- 
erty which  it  may  suit  the  fancy  or  the  convenience  of  the  great 
man  to  take.  This  arbitrary  system  is  a  sad  hindrance  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  tenant ;  for  if  he  is  disposed  to  be  industrious, 
and  bring  his  land  into  good  cultivation,  or  raise  a  good  breed 
of  live  stock,  and  becomes  rich  in  possessions,  the  chief  is  soon 
informed  of  it,  and  the  property  is  seized  for  his  use,  whilst  the 
farmer  loses  the  fruit  of  all  his  labours.  This  state  of  things,  as 
between  the  King  and  his  chiefs,  is  little  more  than  theoretical ; 
but  as  between  the  chiefs  and  their  dependants,  it  exists  mischiev- 
ously in  practice  :  hence  the  great  stimulus  to  industry  being 

169 


170  PEASANT  RENTS. 

removed,  the  people  live  and  vegetate,  without  making  any 
exertions  beyond  what  the  command  of  the  chief  and  the  care  of 
their  own  subsistence  force  upon  them.  One  day  in  a  week,  or 
a  fortnight,  as  occasion  may  require,  the  tenants  are  required  to 
work  upon  the  private  estate  of  the  chief.  I  have  seen  hundreds 
—  men,  women,  and  children,  at  once  employed  in  this  way  on 
the  tarrow-plantations  :  all  hands  turn  out,  for  they  assist  each 
other  in  a  body,  and  thus  get  through  the  work  with  greater 
expedition  and  ease.  When  a  kanaka,  or  tenant,  refuses  to  obey 
the  order  of  his  chief,  the  most  severe  and  summary  punishment 
is  inflicted  on  him,  namely,  confiscation  of  his  property.  An 
instance  in  point  happened  to  occur  while  I  was  staying  at  Why- 
aronah.  Coxe  had  given  orders  to  some  hundreds  of  his  people 
to  repair  to  the  woods  by  an  appointed  day  to  cut  sandal-wood. 
The  whole  obeyed  except  one  man  who  had  the  folly  and  hardi- 
hood to  refuse.  Upon  this,  his  house  was  set  fire  to,  and  burnt 
to  the  ground  on  the  very  day :  still  he  refused  to  go.  The 
next  process  was  to  seize  his  possessions,  and  turn  his  wife  and 
family  off  the  estate  ;  which  would  inevitably  have  been  done,  if 
he  had  not  allowed  discretion  to  take  the  place  of  valour,  and 
made  a  timely  submission,  to  prevent  this  extremity.  It  has 
been  before  said,  that  no  compensation  is  made  to  the  labourers 
for  their  work,  except  a  small  grant  of  land.  This,  however,  does 
not  prevent  the  chief,  if  kindly  disposed,  from  distributing  sup- 
plies of  maros,  tappers,  cloth,  &c.  gratuitously  among  them.  I 
have  heard  that  Krimakoo  once  distributed  no  less  than  three 
thousand  blankets  among  his  people.  The  King  exercises  abso- 
lute dominion  over  the  sea  as  well  as  over  the  land ;  and  in  the 
same  way  lets  out  the  right  of  fishery  along  the  coast  to  his 
chiefs. 

Ibid.  p.  382.  —  At  six  o'clock  we  reached  a  small  village  about 
a  mile  from  the  sea-shore,  and  easily  obtained  a  tolerable  hut  to 


APPENDIX.  171 

pass  the  night  in:  it  belonged  to  an  English  sailor,  who  had 
established  himself  here.  .  .  . 

Ibid.  p.  383.  —  The  English  sailor  informed  me  that  all  the 
land  in  his  neighbourhood  belonged  to  Krimakoo,  the  King's 
Minister,  familiarly  called  Billy  Pitt,  who  had  given  him  sixty 
acres.  On  part  of  this  he  made  a  tarrow-plantation,  which 
afforded  the  means  of  living ;  but  the  rest,  he  said,  was  useless. 
He  seemed  wretchedly  poor;  wore  an  old  shirt  and  trowsers, 
more  ragged  and  dirty  than  can  be  well  conceived,  and  was  so 
disfigured  by  a  thick  black  beard  of  several  weeks  growth,  that 
he  was  really  far  more  savage  looking  than  any  of  the  islanders. 

Without  placing  much  dependence  upon  the  statement  of  this 
poor  fellow,  I  was  still  interested  by  what  he  told  me,  and  pitied 
the  abject  condition  of  dependence  upon  savages,  to  which 
he  was  now  reduced.  Among  other  causes  of  complaint,  he 
inveighed  bitterly  and  with  truth  against  the  tyranny  of  the 
chiefs,  who  claim  a  right  to  possess  all  private  property  which  is 
acquired  upon  their  estates,  and  seize  everything  belonging  to 
the  poorer  classes  for  which  they  feel  an  inclination.  He  said 
that  whenever  an  industrious  person  brought  more  land  into 
cultivation  than  was  necessary  for  his  subsistence,  or  reared  a 
good  breed  of  pigs  and  poultry,  the  chief,  on  hearing  of  it,  had 
no  hesitation  in  making  the  property  his  own.  This  takes  place, 
independent  of  the  customary  presents  and  tribute ;  even  every 
dollar  obtained  .by  traffic  with  strangers  must  be  given  up,  on 
pain  of  the  chief's  displeasure.  Europeans  are  subject  to  the 
same  oppression:  and  from  this  general  insecurity  of  private 
property,  arises  in  a  great  degree  the  absence  of  much  industry 
or  improvement,  both  among  them  and  the  native  peasantry. 

Ibid.  p.  412.  —  I  went  to  visit  an  American  sailor,  who  had  been 
established  upwards  of  five  years  in  this  island,  and  cultivated  a 


172  PEASANT  RENTS. 

small  farm  belonging  to  that  chief.  His  property  consisted  of  a 
few  acres  of  tarrow-plantations,  in  the  midst  of  a  fine  orchard  of 
bread-fruit  and  other  trees,  with  pasturage  for  a  large  herd  of 
goats  ;  and  these,  in  addition  to  some  pigs  and  poultry,  rendered 
him  rich  in  the  eyes  of  all  his  neighbours.  His  cottage  was  well 
built,  and  being  furnished  with  matting,  we  passed  the  night 
very  comfortably  in  it.  He  liked  his  situation  altogether,  and 
thought  it  very  preferable  to  a  seaman's  life;  but  complained, 
nevertheless,  of  the  insecure  tenure  by  which  property  is  held 
in  this  country.  He  told  me,  as  others  had  done,  that  he  was 
afraid  of  making  any  improvements,  and  putting  more  land  into 
cultivation,  lest  his  prosperity  should  excite  the  cupidity  of  the 
chief,  who  would  not  hesitate,  if  he  chose  it,  to  appropriate  the 
whole  to  himself.  As  it  was,  he  had  to  bear  every  sort  of  petty 
exaction,  according  to  the  caprices  of  the  chief,  on  the  instiga- 
tions of  his  advisers,  and  only  retained  possession  of  his  property 
by  acceding  to  every  demand,  and  propitiating  with  continual 
presents,  the  favour  of  the  great  man. 

Ibid.  p.  427.  —  Menini  was  supposed  to  be  worth  thirty  or 
forty  thousand  dollars,  amassed  during  a  residence  of  thirty  years 
in  the  country :  but  he  held  his  property  by  rather  a  feeble  ten- 
ure, namely,  the  King's  good  will  and  pleasure ;  and  might  at 
any  moment  be  deprived  of  it,  without  the  possibility  of  obtain- 
ing redress. 

II.  PAGE  18. 

Travels  from  Vienna  through  Lower  Hungary,  by  Richard 
Bright,  M.D.  p.  114.  —  But,  if  the  landlord  have  reason  to  be 
little  satisfied,  still  less  can  the  peasant  be  supposed  to  rejoice  in 
his  situation.  It  can  never  be  well,  to  make  the  great  and  actu- 
ally necessary  part  of  society,  —  the  labouring  class,  —  depend- 
ant on  the  chances  of  a  good  or  bad  harvest  for  its  existence. 


APPENDIX.  173 

A  man  of  capital  can  bear,  for  a  year  or  two  years,  the  failure  of 
his  crops ;  but,  let  a  cold  east  wind  blow  for  one  night,  —  let  a 
hail  storm  descend,  —  or  let  a  river  overflow  its  banks,  —  and  the 
peasant,  who  has  nothing  but  his  field,  starves  or  becomes  a  bur- 
then to  his  Lord.  Of  this  I  have  seen  actual  proof,  not  only  in 
the  wine  districts  of  Hungary,  in  which  the  uncertainty  of  the 
crop  is  extreme,  but  in  some  of  its  richest  plains,  where  I  have 
known  the  peasantry,  full  three  months  before  gathering  in,  hum- 
bly supplicating  the  landlords  to  advance  them  corn  on  the  faith 
of  the  coming  harvest.  These  are  evils  always  liable  to  occur, 
supposing  the  peasant  were  allowed  to  cultivate  his  lands  with- 
out interruption.  But  is  this  the  case  ?  The  Lord  can  legally 
claim  only  one  hundred  and  four  days'  labour  from  each  in  the 
year ;  yet  who  can  restrain  him  if  he  demand  more  ?  There  are 
a  multiplicity  of  pretexts  under  which  he  can  make  such  de- 
mands, and  be  supported  in  them.  The  administration  of  justice 
is,  in  a  great  degree,  vested  in  his  own  hands.  There  are  many 
little  faults  for  which  a  peasant  becomes  liable  to  be  punished 
with  blows  and  fines,  but  which  he  is  often  permitted  to  commute 
for  labour.  In  fact,  these  things  happen  so  frequently,  and  other 
extorted  days  of  labour  which  the  peasant  fears  to  refuse,  occur 
so  often,  that  I  remember,  when  in  conversation  with  a  very 
intelligent  Director,  I  was  estimating  the  labour  of  each  peasant 
at  104  days,  —  he  immediately  corrected  me,  and  said  I  might 
double  it.  If,  however,  the  Lord,  or  his  head  servants,  have  too 
much  feeling  of  propriety  to  transgress  against  the  strictness  of  the 
law,  they  can  at  any  time  call  upon  the  peasants  to  serve  them  for 
pay ;  and  that,  not  at  the  usual  wages  of  a  servant,  but  about 
one-third  as  much,  according  to  an  assessed  rate  of  labour.  Add 
to  all  this,  the  services  due  to  the  government,  —  remember,  too, 
that  cases  occur  in  which  a  peasant  is  obliged  to  be  six  weeks 
from  his  home,  with  his  horses  and  cart,  carrying  imperial  stores 
to  the  frontier,  — and  then  judge  whether  he  is  permitted  to  cul- 


174  PEASANT  RENTS. 

tivate,  without  interruption,  the  land  which  he  receives,  as  the 
only  return  for  his  labour. 

III.  PAGE  28. 

Burnet's  View  of  the  Present  State  of  Poland,  p.  85. — 
When  a  young  peasant  marries,  his  lord  assigns  him  a  certain 
quantity  of  land,  sufficient  for  the  maintenance  of  himself  and 
family  in  the  poor  manner  in  which  they  are  accustomed  to  live. 
Should  the  family  be  numerous,  some  little  addition  is  made  to 
the  grant.  At  the  same  time,  the  young  couple  obtain  also  a 
few  cattle,  as  a  cow  or  two,  with  steers  to  plough  their  land. 
These  are  fed  in  the  stubble,  or  in  the  open  places  of  the  woods, 
as  the  season  admits.  The  master  also  provides  them  with  a 
cottage,  with  implements  of  husbandry,  in  short,  with  all  their 
little  movable  property.  In  consideration  of  these  grants,  the 
peasant  is  obliged  to  make  a  return  to  the  landholder  of  one-half 
of  his  labour ;  that  is,  he  works  three  days  in  the  week  for  his 
lord,  and  three  for  himself.  If  any  of  his  cattle  die,  they  are  re- 
placed by  the  master ;  a  circumstance  which  renders  him  negli- 
gent of  his  little  herd,  as  the  death  or  loss  of  some  of  them  is  a 
frequent  occurrence.  When  a  farmer  rents  a  farm,  the  villages 
situated  on  it,  with  their  inhabitants,  are  considered  as  included 
in  the  contract ;  and  the  farmer  derives  a  right  to  the  same  pro- 
portion of  the  labour  of  the  peasants  for  the  cultivation  of  that 
farm,  as  by  the  condition  of  their  tenure  they  are  bound  to  yield 
the  lord.  If  an  estate  be  sold,  the  peasants  are  likewise  trans- 
ferred, of  course,  with  the  soil,  to  a  new  master,  subject  to  the 
same  conditions  as  before.  The  Polish  boors,  therefore,  are 
still  slaves ;  and  relatively  to  their  political  existence,  absolutely 
subject  to  the  will  of  their  lords,  as  in  all  the  barbarism  of  the 
feudal  times.  They  are  not  privileged  to  quit  the  soil,  except  in 
a  few  instances  of  complete  enfranchisement ;  and  if  they  were, 


APPENDIX.  175 

the  privilege,  for  the  most  part,  would  be  merely  nominal :  for 
whither  should  they  go  ?  They  may  retire,  indeed,  into  the 
recesses  of  the  forest,  where  it  is  possible  they  may  not  be 
traced  and  it  is  probable,  that  in  times  past  many  resorted  to 
this  expedient  to  escape  from  the  cruelties  of  a  tyrannical  master. 
To  fly  from  a  mild  master  would  be  obviously  against  their  in- 
terest. To  quit  the  territory  of  one  grandee  for  that  of  another, 
must  commonly,  if  not  always,  have  been  impracticable  ;  for  what 
landholder  would  choose  to  admit  a  fugitive  peasant,  and  thus 
encourage  a  spirit  of  revolt?  Again,  it  is  not  in  their  power, 
from  the  circumstances  of  their  condition,  to  sell  their  labour 
indifferently  to  this  or  that  master ;  and  if  such  obstacles  did  not 
oppose,  the  very  extent  of  the  Polish  farms,  and  the  consequent 
want  of  a  second  contiguous  employer,  would  suffice  in  most  cases 
to  preclude  a  change  of  masters. 

It  is  said  that  a  few  of  the  peasants  improve  the  little  stock 
which  is  committed  to  their  management,  accumulating  some 
small  property  ;  but  their  conduct  is  far  more  frequently  marked 
by  carelessness  and  a  want  of  forecast.  Instances,  however,  of 
this  accumulation,  begin  to  multiply  :  for  one  effect  of  the  parti- 
tion has  been,  that  the  peasants  are  less  liable  to  be  plundered. 
Generally  speaking,  it  does  not  appear  that  this  allowance  of 
land  and  cattle  either  is,  or  designed  to  be,  more  than  enough 
for  their  scanty  maintenance.  I  was  once  on  a  short  journey 
with  a  nobleman,  when  we  stopped  to  bait  at  the  farm-house  of  a 
village,  which  I  have  before  mentioned  as  a  common  custom  in 
Poland.  The  peasants  got  intelligence  of  the  presence  of  their 
lord,  and  assembled  in  a  body  of  twenty  or  thirty,  to  prefer  a 
petition  to  him.  I  was  never  more  struck  with  the  appearance 
of  these  poor  wretches,  and  the  contrast  of  their  condition  with 
that  of  their  master.  I  stood  at  a  distance,  and  perceived  that 
he  did  not  yield  to  their  supplication.  When  he  had  dis- 
missed them,  I  had  the  curiosity  to  enquire  the  object  of  their 


176  PEASANT  RENTS. 

petition ;  and  he  replied,  that  they  had  begged  for  an  increased 
allowance  of  land,  on  the  plea  that  what  they  had  was  insufficient 
for  their  support.  He  added,  "  I  did  not  grant  it  them,  because 
their  present  allotment  is  the  usual  quantity ;  and  as  it  has  suf- 
ficed hitherto,  so  it  will  for  the  time  to  come.  Besides,  (said  he,) 
if  I  give  them  more,  I  well  know  that  it  will  not,  in  reality, 
better  their  circumstances." 

Poland  does  not  furnish  a  man  of  more  humanity  than  the  one 
who  rejected  this  apparently  resonable  petition ;  but  it  must  be 
allowed  that  he  had  good  reasons  for  what  he  did.  Those 
degraded  and  wretched  beings,  instead  of  hoarding  the  small 
surplus  of  their  absolute  necessities,  are  almost  universally 
accustomed  to  expend  it  in  that  abominable  spirit,  which  they 
call  schnaps.  It  is  incredible  what  quantities  of  this  pernicious 
liquor  are  drunk,  both  by  the  peasant  men  and  women.  -I  have 
been  told,  that  a  woman  will  frequently  drink  a  pint,  and  even 
more,  at  a  sitting,  and  that  too  in  no  great  length  of  time.  I 
have  myself  often  seen  one  of  these  poor  women  led  home  be- 
tween two  men,  so  intoxicated  as  to  be  unable  to  stand.  There 
can  be  no  question,  that  the  excessive  use  of  this  whiskey  (were 
it  not  to  libel  whiskey  thus  to  style  it)  ought  to  be  enumerated 
among  the  chief  proximate  causes  of  the  deficient  population  of 
Poland.  It  is  indeed  so  considered  by  the  Poles ;  and  the  Count 
Zamoyski  has  lately  established  a  porter  brewery  in  Galitzia,  in 
the  hope  of  checking  eventually  so  hurtful  a  habit,  by  the  substi- 
tution of  that  wholesome  beverage. 

The  first  time  I  saw  any  of  these  withered  creatures,  was  at 
Dantzic.  I  was  prepared,  by  printed  accounts,  to  expect  a  sight 
of  singular  wretchedness ;  but  I  shrunk  involuntarily  from  the 
contemplation  of  the  reality ;  and  my  feelings  could  not  be  con- 
soled by  the  instantaneous  and  inevitable  reflection,  that  I  was 
then  in  a  region  which  contains  millions  of  miserable  beings  of 
the  description  of  those  before  me.  Some  involuntary  exclama- 


APPENDIX.  177 

tion  of  surprise  mixed  with  compassion  escaped  me.  A  thought- 
less and  a  feelingless  person  (which  are  about  the  same  things) 
was  standing  by.  "Oh  sir!  (says  he)  you  will  find  plenty  of 
such  people  as  these  in  Poland;  and  you  may  strike  them  and 
kick  them,  or  do  what  you  please  with  them,  and  they  will 
never  resist  you  ;  they  dare  not."  Thus,  this  gentleman,  by  the 
manner  in  which  he  spoke,  seemed  to  think  it  a  sort  of  privilege, 
that  they  had  among  them  a  set  of  beings  on  whom  they  may 
vent  with  impunity  the  exuberance  of  their  spite,  and  gratify 
every  fitful  burst  of  capricious  passion.  Far  be  it  from  me,  to 
ascribe  the  feelings  of  this  man  to  the  more  cultivated  and  hu- 
manized Poles  ;  but  such  incidental  and  thoughtless  expressions 
betray  but  too  sensibly  the  general  state  of  feeling  which  exists 
in  regard  to  these  oppressed  men. 

Some  few  of  the  boors  are  found  about  every  large  mansion. 
They  are  employed  by  the  domestics  in  the  most  dirty  menial 
offices.  These  have  never  any  beds  (however  mean)  provided 
them ;  so  that  in  the  summer-nights,  they  sleep  like  dogs,  in  any 
hole  or  corner  they  can  find,  always  without  undressing.  But 
the  winter's  cold  drives  them  into  the  hall,  where  they  commonly 
crouch  close  to  the  stoves  which  are  stationed  there.  Here,  too, 
several  of  the  domestics  spread  their  pallets,  and  take  up  their 
night's  abode.  Frequently,  as  I  have  retired  to  my  room  after 
supper,  I  have  stumbled  over  a  boor  sleeping  at  the  foot  of  the 
stairs  —  a  curious  and  a  melancholy  spectacle!  to  see  these  poor 
creatures,  in  all  their  unmitigated  wretchedness,  lodging  in  the 
halls  of  palaces ! 

In  giving  orders  or  directions  of  any  sort  to  these  torpid  beings, 
though  the  sentiment  of  the  speaker  be  not  disgraced  by  the 
slightest  admixture  of  unkind  feeling,  it  is  customary  to  address 
them  in  a  certain  smart  and  striking  manner ;  as  if  to  stimulate 
their  stupid  senses  into  sufficient  action  to  prompt  the  perform- 
ance of  the  most  ordinary  offices.  There  is  no  circumstance 


178  PEASANT  RENTS. 

more  deplorable  in  slavery  than  that  dead-palsy  of  the  faculties, 
which  bereaves  its  possessor  even  of  the  comfort  of  hope ;  or 
capacitates  him  only  to  hope  that  he  may  live  without  torment, 
and  mope  out  his  existence  in  joyless  apathy!  If  to  a  contiguous 
person  you  give  utterance  to  any  compassionating  remark,  you 
are  commonly  answered  with  the  most  indifferent  air  imaginable, 
"  It  is  very  true ;  but  they  are  used  to  it ; "  something  in  the 
same  way,  I  have  thought,  as  eels  are  used  to  skinning  alive. 

Ibid.  p.  84.  —  Their  diet  is  very  scanty;  they  have  rarely  any 
animal  food.  Even  at  the  inns,  in  the  interior  of  Poland,  which 
are  not  situated  in  a  pretty  good  town,  scarcely  anything  is  to  be 
procured.  Their  best  things  are  their  milk  and  poor  cheese, 
were  they  in  sufficient  abundance ;  but  the  principal  article  of 
their  diet  is  their  coarse  rye-bread  above  mentioned,  and  which 
I  have  sometimes  attempted  in  vain  to  swallow. 

Ibid.  p.  1 02.  —  Till  the  reign  of  Casimir  the  Great,  about  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  the  Polish  nobles  exercised 
over  their  peasants  the  uncontrouled  power  of  life  and  death. 
No  magistrate,  not  even  the  King  himself,  had  authority  to 
punish  or  restrain  barbarities  which  outraged  humanity.  If  an 
act  of  brutal  cruelty  were  committed  by  one  grandee  on  the  slave 
of  another,  he  was  then  liable  to  be  called  to  an  account  by  the 
possessor,  as  the  violator  of  his  property,  not  as  the  perpetrator 
of  crime.  This  barbarous  power  in  the  nobles  over  the  condi- 
tion and  lives  of  the  boors,  even  Casimir  was  forced  to  recognize 
in  the  year  1366.  Yet  Casimir  had  a  soul  which  felt  for  their 
hard  lot,  and  he  earnestly  endeavoured  to  mitigate  its  severity. 
The  peasants,  finding  him  their  friend,  would  often  go  to  him 
with  complaints  of  the  injuries  they  received.  "What!  (says  he 
with  indignation  on  these  occasions)  have  you  neither  stones 
nor  bludgeons  with  which  to  defend  yourselves  ?  " 


APPENDIX.  179 

Casimir  was  the  first  who  ventured  to  prescribe  a  fine  for  the 
murder  of  a  peasant.  And,  as  it  had  been  the  custom,  on  the 
death  of  a  peasant,  for  the  master  to  seize  his  trifling  effects,  he 
also  enacted,  that  on  his  decease  his  next  heir  should  inherit ; 
and  that  if  his  master  should  plunder  him,  or  dishonour  his  wife 
or  daughter,  he  should  be  permitted  to  remove  whithersoever  he 
pleased.  He  even  decreed,  that  a  peasant  should  be  privileged 
to  bear  arms  as  a  soldier,  and  be  considered  as  a  freeman. 

These  humane  regulations,  however,  were  ill  observed  in  the 
sequel ;  for  of  what  avail  are  laws,  if  authority  be  wanting  to 
enforce  obedience?  There  is  an  ancient  Polish  maxim,  il That 
no  slave  can  carry  on  any  process  against  his  master ;  "  and  hence 
the  law  regarding  the  inheritance  of  property  was  rendered  nuga- 
tory. Nor  could  the  fine  for  murder  be  often  levied,  by  reason 
of  the  accumulation  of  evidence  required  for  the  conviction  of  a 
noble.  Yet  these  were  the  only  attempts  to  better  the  condition 
of  the  boors,  till  the  year  1768,  when  a  decree  passed  by  which 
the  murder  of  a  peasant  was  rendered  a  capital  crime.  But  even 
this  enactment  was  a  mere  mockery  of  justice  :  for  to  prove  the 
fact  of  murder,  a  concurrence  of  circumstances  was  made  neces- 
sary, which  could  rarely  have  been  found  to  co-exist.  The  mur- 
derer was  not  only  to  be  taken  in  the  fact!  but  that  fact  was 
required  to  be  proved  by  the  testimony  of  two  gentlemen,  or 
four  peasants !  These  insignificant  edicts,  rendered  inefficient 
by  the  power  of  custom,  were  not  the  only  obstacles  to  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  peasantry  to  the  rank  of  men.  There  existed,  in  the 
Polish  laws,  numerous  and  positive  ordinances,  as  though  ex- 
pressly designed  to  perpetuate  slavery.  Among  these,  the  most 
oppressive  seems  to  have  been  that  which  empowered  the  nobles 
to  erect  summary  tribunals,  subject  to  no  appeals,  by  which  they 
inflicted  whatever  penalties  they  thought  proper  on  delinquents, 
or  those  whom  they  chose  to  consider  as  delinquents.  The 
penalties  for  elopement  from  their  villages  were  peculiarly  severe  ; 


180  PEASANT  RENTS. 

which  proves  at  once  the  grievousness  of  their  oppression,  and 
the  existence  of  frequent  attempts  to  escape. 

Ibid.  p.  110.  —  Whoever  casts  his  eye  but  for  a  moment  on 
the  miserable  boors  of  Poland,  will  instantly  feel,  that  ages  must 
elapse  before  they  can  be  raised  to  the  rank  of  civilized  beings. 
If  met  in  the  winter's  snow,  they  appear  like  herds  of  savage 
beasts  rather  than  companies  of  men;  but  with  the  melancholy 
difference  of  being  totally  destitute  of  that  wild  activity  which 
characterizes  savage  nature.  Their  coarse  mantles  ;  their  shrunk 
and  squalid  forms ;  their  dirty,  matted  hair ;  their  dull,  moping 
looks,  and  lifeless  movements ;  all  combine  to  form  an  image 
which  sickens  humanity,  and  makes  the  heart  recoil  even  from 
its  own  horrid  sympathy  ! 

Ibid.  p.  105.  —  Some  endeavours  have  been  likewise  made 
by  individuals  to  abolish  the  slavery  of  the  boors.  In  the  year 
1760,  the  Chancellor  Zamoyski  enfranchised  six  villages  in  the 
palatinate  of  Masovia.  This  experiment  has  been  much  vaunted 
by  Mr.  Coxe  as  having  been  attended  with  all  the  good  effects 
desired  ;  and  he  asserts  that  the  Chancellor  had,  in  consequence, 
enfranchised  the  peasants  on  all  his  estates.  Both  of  these  as- 
sertions are  false.  I  enquired  particularly  of  the  son,  the  present 
Count  Zamoyski,  respecting  those  six  villages,  and  was  grieved 
to  learn,  that  the  experiment  had  completely  failed.  The  Count 
said,  that  within  a  few  years  he  had  sold  the  estate,  as  it  was 
situated  in  the  Prussian  division,  with  which  he  had  now  no 
concern.  He  added,  I  was  also  glad  to  get  rid  of  it,  from  the 
trouble  the  peasants  gave  me.  These  degraded  beings,  on  re- 
ceiving their  freedom,  were  overjoyed,  it  seems,  at  they  knew 
not  what.  Having  no  distinct  comprehension  of  what  freedom 
meant,  but  merely  a  rude  notion  that  they  may  now  do  what  they 
liked,  they  ran  into  every  species  of  excess  and  extravagance 


APPENDIX.  181 

which  their  circumstances  admitted.  Drunkenness,  instead  of 
being  occasional,  became  almost  perpetual;  riot  and  disorder 
usurped  the  place  of  quietness  and  industry;  the  necessary 
labour  suspended,  the  lands  were  worse  cultivated  than  before ; 
and  the  small  rents  required  of  them  they  were  often  unable  to 
pay.  Yet  what  does  all  this  prove?  that  slavery  is  better  than 
freedom  for  a  large  portion  of  mankind  ?  horrible  inference  ! 
But  it  proves  decisively,  what  has  been  often  proved  before,  that 
we  may  be  too  precipitate  in  our  plans  of  reform ;  and  that  mis- 
guided benevolence  may  frequently  do  mischief,  while  it  seeks 
only  to  diifuse  good. 

In  all  instances  of  failure  relative  to  the  proposed  benefit  of 
human  beings,  the  great  danger  is,  lest  we  should  relax  in  our 
efforts,  and  conclude  that  to  be  impossible,  which,  in  fact,  our 
deficient  wisdom  only  had  prevented  us  from  effecting. 

Ibid.  p.  109.  —  The  present  Count  Zamoyski,  son  of  the  late 
Chancellor,  in  nowise  disheartened  by  his  father's  miscarriage, 
continues  to  meditate  extensive  plans  of  improvement  relative  to 
his  own  peasantry.  But  he  is  now  aware  that  he  must  proceed 
with  caution,  and  not  by  attempting  too  much,  end  in  doing 
nothing.  He  designs  to  emancipate  the  whole  of  his  vassals 
gradually ;  to  give  them  slight  privileges  at  first,  and  to  encour- 
age them  with  the  hope  of  more,  on  condition  of  proper  conduct. 
In  short,  his  principle  is  to  retain  the  power  of  reward  and  pun- 
ishment completely  in  his  own  hands,  that  he  may  be  able  to 
stimulate  to  industry  by  the  hope  of  new  favours,  and  to  restrain 
from  misconduct  by  the  threatened  forfeiture  of  those  already 
conceded ;  till  their  state,  gradually  ameliorated,  shall  render  it 
safe  to  give  them  entire  freedom,  and  to  leave  their  conduct  to  be 
regulated  by  the  general  operation  of  the  laws. 

Ibid.  p.  121.  —  The  cultivation  of  the  soil  in  Poland,  in  the 


182  PEASANT  RENTS, 

manner  it  is  there  conducted,  is  attended  with  little  trouble  and 
expense;  indeed,  far  less  than  it  ought  to  be.  We  nowhere 
see  more  than  a  ploughman  with  his  plough  and  a  single  pair 
of  small  bullocks,  not  bigger  than  English  steers,  to  produce  a 
fallow.  There  is  scarcely  such  a  thing  as  manure  to  be  seen, 
and  the  produce  is  proportionally  small. 

Ibid.  p.  124.  —  The  territory  of  a  nobleman,  the  extent  of  which 
I  had  an  opportunity  of  ascertaining  with  some  exactness,  is  about 
five  thousand  square  miles ;  which  produces  an  income  of  about 
100,000  ducats,  or  ,£50,000  sterling :  this  gives  only  ^50  a  year 
for  every  twenty  square  miles. 

IV.    PAGE  66. 

Miiller  treats  the  Periceci  as  tributary  communities,  as  a  sort  of 
inferior  allies,  and  denies  that  their  condition  ever  approached 
that  of  individual  personal  dependence  ;  their  condition,  he  says, 
"  never  had  the  slightest  resemblance  to  that  of  bondage,"  (see 
Tuffnell  and  Lewis,  p.  30).  It  strikes  me,  as  it  seems  to  have 
done  Goettling,  (see  his  Aristotle,  p.  465,)  that  if  this  is  meant 
to  apply  to  the  Grecian  Periceci  generally,  it  is  going  rather  too 
far.  The  Perioeci  appear  to  have  been  everywhere  natives  reduced 
by  foreign  invaders  to  a  state  of  subjection  less  servile  in  some 
districts  than  in  others,  but  very  like  bondage  in  many.  Aristotle 
must  have  seen  them  in  such  a  state  when  he  intimates  that  they 
may  very  well  occupy  the  place  of  the  SovAoi,  he  prefers  as  culti- 
vators. See  note  to  page  80  of  text.  See  too  Gcettling's  Aris- 
totle, p.  473.  —  "Urbs  quaevis  autem  Cretensium  suos  habebat 
"  Perioecos  indigenas  quidem  sed  bello  victos,  qui  agrum  ceteris 
"  colebant :  nee  tamen  armis  iis  uti  licuit  nee  gymnasiis.  Id  ex 
"  institutione  Minois  supererat,  ut  auctor  est  Aristoteles." 

Goettling  on  the  other  hand  is  of  opinion,  that  this  class  of 


APPENDIX.  183 

people,  neither  slaves  or  freemen,  but  invested  with  something 
of  an  intermediate  character,  existed  in  the  Dorian  states  alone ; 
and  he  says  distinctly  that  they  were  not  to  be  found  among  the 
lonians,  see  Arist.  Pol.  by  Goettling,  p.  464.  "  Fundata  erat 
"  autem  haec  dorica  constitutio  duabus  maxime  rebus :  diverso 
"  moderates  multitudinis  jure  et  magistratuum  descripta  dignitate. 
"  Nam  quum  civitates  lonicce  originis  nonnisi  liberos  novissent  et 
"  servos  quicivitatem  constituerent,  apud  Dorienses  medium  quod- 
"  dam  genus  inter  liberos  (Spartanos)  et  servos  (Helotes)  repe- 
"riebatur,  Perioecorum  nomine  insignitum."  Surely  this  is  a 
mistake,  and  one  which  would  lead  to  considerable  misapprehen- 
sion as  to  the  mode  in  which  the  early  communities  of  Greece, 
Ionian  as  well  as  Dorian,  were  originally  constituted.  Wher-. 
ever  a  conquest  took  place,  there  a  class  was  established  under 
some  name  or  other,  consisting  of  the  conquered  natives,  and 
ranking  neither  as  citizens  or  slaves.  Such  a  class  existed  as  we 
have  seen  among  the  Ionian  inhabitants  of  Attica.  The  fact 
seems  to  be,  that  although  this  order  in  the  state  may  be  traced 
almost  everywhere  in  Greece,  still  it  was  in  the  Dorian  states 
alone  that  its  presence  and  functions  were  necessary  to  support 
the  very  peculiar  institutions  established  by  the  conquerors. 
Elsewhere  it  might  disappear  or  be  transformed,  as  in  Attica, 
without  the  event's  affecting  the  constitution  of  the  state. 

V.    Page  88. 

Travels  in  France,  by  Arthur  Young,  Esq.  Vol.  n.  p.  151. — 
The  predominant  feature  in  the  farms  of  Piedmont  is  metayers, 
nearly  upon  the  same  system  which  I  have  described  and  con- 
demned, in  treating  of  the  husbandry  of  France.  The  landlord 
commonly  pays  the  taxes  and  repairs  the  buildings,  and  the  ten- 
ant provides  cattle,  implements,  and  seed;  they  provide  the 
produce.  Wherever  this  system  prevails,  it  may  be  taken  for 


184  PEASANT  RENTS. 

granted  that  a  useless  and  miserable  population  is  found.  The 
poverty  of  the  farmers  is  the  origin  of  it ;  they  cannot  stock  the 
farms,  pay  taxes,  and  rent  in  money,  and,  therefore,  must  divide 
the  produce  in  order  to  divide  the  burthen.  There  is  reason  to 
believe  that  this  was  entirely  the  system  in  every  part  of  Europe ; 
it  is  gradually  going  out  everywhere  ;  and  in  Piedmont  is  giving 
way  to  great  farms,  whose  occupiers  pay  a  money  rent.  I  was  for 
sometime  deceived  in  going  from  Nice  to  Turin,  and  believed  that 
more  of  the  farms  were  larger  than  is  really  the  case,  which  re- 
sulted from  many  small  ones  being  collected  into  one  homestead. 
That  belonging  to  the  Prince  of  Carignan,  at  Bilia  Bruna,  has  the 
appearance  of  being  very  considerable ;  but,  on  inquiry,  I  found 
it  in  the  hands  of  seven  families  of  metayers.  In  the  mountains, 
from  Nice  to  Racconis,  however,  they  are  small ;  but  many  prop- 
erties, as  in  the  mountains  of  France  and  Spain. 

The  Caval.  de  Capra,  member  of  the  Agrarian  Society,  assured 
me,  that  the  union  of  farms  was  the  ruin  of  Piedmont,  and  the 
effect  of  luxury ;  that  the  metayers  were  dismissed  and  driven 
away,  and  the  fields  everywhere  depopulated.  I  demanded  how 
the  country  came  to  have  the  appearance  of  immense  cultivation, 
and  looked  rather  like  a  garden  than  a  farm,  all  the  way  from 
Coni?  He  replied,  that  I  should  see  things  otherwise  in  passing 
to  Milan  :  that  the  rice  culture  was  supported  by  great  farms,  and 
that  large  tracts  of  country  were  reduced  to  a  desert.  Are  they 
then  uncultivated  ?  No ;  they  are  very  well  cultivated ;  but  the 
people  all  gone,  or  become  miserable.  We  hear  the  same  story 
in  every  country  that  is  improving :  while  the  produce  is  eaten 
up  by  a  superfluity  of  idle  hands,  there  is  population  on  the  spot ; 
but  it  is  useless  population:  the  improvement  banishes  these 
drones  to  towns,  where  they  become  useful  in  trade  and  manu- 
factures, and  yield  a  market  to  that  land,  to  which  they  were 
before  only  a  burthen.  No  country  can  be  really  flourishing 
unless  this  take  place :  nor  can  there  be  anywhere  a  flourishing 


APPENDIX.  185 

and  wealthy  race  of  farmers,  able  to  give  money  rents,  but  by  the 
destruction  of  metaying.  Does  any  one  imagine  that  England 
would  be  more  rich  and  more  populous  if  her  farmers  were  turned 
into  metayers?  Ridiculous.  .The  intendant  of  Bissatti  added 
another  argument  against  great  farms ;  namely,  that  of  their 
being  laid  to  grass  more  than  small  ones ;  surely  this  is  a  lead- 
ing circumstance  in  their  favour ;  for  grass  is  the  last  and  great- 
est improvement  of  Piedment ;  and  that  arrangement  of  the  soil 
which  occasions  most  to  be  in  grass,  is  the  most  beneficial. 
Their  meadows  are  amongst  the  finest  and  most  productive  in 
the  world.  What  is  their  arable?  It  yields  crops  of  five  or  six 
times  the  seed  only.  To  change  such  arable  to  such  grass,  is, 
doubtless,  the  highest  degree  of  improvement.  View  France  and 
her  metayers  —  View  England  and  her  farmers  ;  and  then  draw 
your  conclusions. 

Wherever  the  country  (that  I  saw)  is  poor  and  unwatered,  in 
the  Milanese,  it  is  in  the  hands  of  metayers.  At  Mozzata  the 
Count  de  Castiglioni  shewed  me  the  rent  book  his  intendant 
(steward)  keeps,  and  it  is  a  curious  explanation  of  the  system 
which  prevails.  In  some  hundred  pages  I  saw  very  few  names 
without  a  large  balance  of  debt  due  to  him,  and  brought  from 
the  book  of  the  preceding  year :  they  pay  by  so  many  moggii 
of  all  the  different  grains,  at  the  price  of  the  year:  so  many 
heads  of  poultry ;  so  much  labour ;  so  much  hay ;  and  so  much 
straw,  &c.  But  there  is,  in  most  of  their  accounts,  on  the 
debtor's  side,  a  variety  of  articles,  beside  those  of  regular  rent : 
so  much  corn,  of  all  sorts,  borrowed  of  the  landlord,  for  seed  or 
food,  when  the  poor  man  has  none :  the  same  thing  is  common 
in  France,  wherever  metaying  takes  place.  All  this  proves  the 
extreme  poverty,  and  even  misery,  of  these  little  farmers ;  and 
shews,  that  their  condition  is  more  wretched  than  that  of  a  day 
labourer.  They  are  much  too  numerous  ;  three  being  calculated 
to  live  on  one  hundred  pertichi,  and  all  fully  employed  by 


186  PEASANT  RENTS. 

labouring,  and  cropping  the  land  incessantly  with  the  spade, 
for  a  produce  unequal  to  the  payment  of  anything  to  the  land- 
lord, after  feeding  themselves  and  their  cattle  as  they  ought  to 
be  fed  ;  hence  the  universal  distress  of  the  country. 

Ibid.  p.  155.  —  Estates  in  Bologna  are  very  generally  let  to 
middlemen,  who  re-let  them  to  the  farmers  at  half  produce,  by 
which  means  the  proprietor  receives  little  more  than  one-half  of 
what  he  might  do  on  a  better  system,  with  a  peasantry  in  a 
better  situation.  The  whole  country  is  at  half  produce;  the 
farmer  supplies  implements,  cattle,  and  sheep,  and  half  the 
seed  ;  the  proprietor  repairs. 

Ibid.  pp.  155-56.  —  Letting  lands,  at  money  rent,  is  but  new 
in  Tuscany ;  and  it  is  strange  to  say,  that  Sig.  Paoletti,  a  very 
practical  writer,  declares  against  it.  A  farm  in  Tuscany  is 
called  a  podere :  and  such  a  number  of  them  as  are  placed  under 
the  management  of  a  factor,  is  called  fattoria.  His  business  is 
to  see  that  the  lands  are  managed  according  to  the  lease,  and 
that  the  landlord  has  his  fair  half.  These  farms  are  not  often 
larger  than  for  a  pair  of  oxen,  and  eight  to  twelve  people  in  one 
house;  some  100  pertichi  (this  measure  is  to  the  acre,  as  about 
25  to  38),  and  two  pair  of  oxen,  with  twenty  people.  I  was 
assured  that  these  metayers  are  (especially  near  Florence)  much 
at  their  ease  ;  that  on  holydays  they  are  dressed  remarkably  well, 
and  not  without  objects  of  luxury,  as  silver,  gold,  and  silk ;  and 
live  well,  on  plenty  of  bread,  wine,  and  legumes.  In  some 
instances  this  may  possibly  be  the  case,  but  the  general  fact  is 
contrary.  It  is  absurd  to  think  that  metayers,  upon  such  a  farm 
as  is  cultivated  by  a  pair  of  oxen,  can  be  at  their  ease ;  and  a 
clear  proof  of  their  poverty  is  this,  that  the  landlord,  who  provides 
half  the  live  stock,  is  often  obliged  to  lend  the  peasant  money  to 
enable  him  to  procure  his  half  ;  but  they  hire  farms  with  very 


APPENDIX.  187 

little  money,  which  is  the  old  story  of  France,  £c. ;  and  indeed 
poverty  and  miserable  agriculture  are  the  sure  attendants  upon 
this  way  of  letting  land.  The  metayers,  not  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  city,  are  so  poor,  that  landlords  even  lend  them  corn  to  eat : 
their  food  is  black  bread,  made  of  a  mixture  with  vetches ;  and 
their  drink  is  very  little  wine,  mixed  with  water,  and  called  aqua- 
rolle;  meat  on  Sundays  only;  their  dress  very  ordinary. 

Ibid.  p.  157. —  In  the  mountains  of  Modena  there  are  many 
peasant  proprietors,  but  not  in  the  plain.  A  great  evil  here,  as 
in  other  parts  of  Lombardy,  is  the  practice  of  the  great  lords,  and 
the  possessors  of  lands  in  mortmain  letting  to  middle  men,  who 
re-let  to  metayers ;  under  which  tenure  are  all  the  lands  of  the 
dutchy. 

Ibid.  p.  158.  —  Appearances  from  Reggio  to  Parma  are  much 
inferior  to  those  from  Modena  to  Reggio  ;  the  fences  not  so  neat ; 
nor  the  houses  so  well  built,  white,  or  clean.  All  here  metayers  ; 
the  proprietor  supplies  the  cattle,  half  the  seed,  and  pays  the 
taxes;  the  peasant  provides  the  utensils.  In  the  whole  dutchies 
of  Parma  and  Piacenza,  and  indeed  almost  everywhere  else,  the 
farms  must  be  very  small ;  the  practices  I  have  elsewhere  noted, 
of  the  digging  the  land  for  beans,  and  working  it  up  with  a  super- 
fluity of  labour,  evidently  shew  it :  the  swarms  of  people  in  all 
the  markets  announce  the  same  fact ;  at  Piacenza,  I  saw  men, 
whose  only  business  was  to  bring  a  small  bag  of  apples,  about  a 
peck;  one  man  brought  a  turkey,  and  not  a  fine  one.  What 
a  waste  of  time  and  labour,  for  a  stout  fellow  to  be  thus  employed. 

Travels  in  Switzerland,  by  W.  Coxe,  Vol.  in.  p.  145.— 
Another  cause  of  their  wretchedness  proceeds  from  the  present 
state  of  property.  Few  of  the  peasants  are  landholders  ;  as  from 
the  continual  oppression  under  which  the  people  have  groaned 


188  PEASANT  RENTS. 

for  above  these  two  last  centuries,  the  freeholds  have  gradually 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  nobles  and  Grisons,  the  latter  of 
whom  are  supposed  to  possess  half  the  estates  in  the  Valteline. 
The  tenants  who  take  farms  do  not  pay  their  rent  in  money,  but 
in  kind ;  a  strong  proof  of  general  poverty.  The  peasant  is  at 
all  the  costs  of  cultivation,  and  delivers  near  half  the  produce  to 
the  landholder.  The  remaining  portion  would  ill  compensate 
his  labour  and  expense,  if  he  was  not  in  some  measure  befriended 
by  the  fertility  of  the  soil.  The  ground  seldom  lies  fallow,  and 
the  richest  parts  of  the  valley  produce  two  crops.  The  first  crop 
is  wheat,  rye,  or  spelt,  half  of  which  is  delivered  to  the  proprietor ; 
the  second  crop  is  generally  millet,  buckwheat,  maize,  or  Turkey 
corn,  which  is  the  principal  nourishment  of  the  common  people : 
the  chief  part  of  this  crop  belongs  to  the  peasant,  and  enables  him 
in  a  plentiful  year  to  support  his  family  with  some  degree  of 
comfort.  The  peasants  who  inhabit  the  districts  which  yield 
wine  are  the  most  wretched :  for  the  trouble  and  charge  of  rear- 
ing the  vines,  of  gathering  and  pressing  the  grapes,  is  very  con- 
siderable ;  and  they  are  so  very  apt  to  consume  the  share  of  liquor 
allotted  to  them  in  intoxication,  that,  were  it  not  for  the  grain 
intermixed  with  the  vines,  they  and  their  families  would  be  left 
almost  entirely  destitute  of  subsistence. 

Besides  the  business  of  agriculture,  some  of  the  peasants 
attend  to  the  cultivation  of  silk.  For  this  purpose  they  receive 
the  eggs  from  the  landholder,  rear  the  silk-worms,  and  are  entitled 
to  half  the  silk.  This  employment  is  not  unprofitable;  for 
although  the  rearing  of  the  silk- worms  is  attended  with  much 
trouble,  and  requires  great  caution,  yet  as  the  occupation  is  gen- 
erally entrusted  to  the  women,  it  does  not  take  the  men  from 
their  work. 

With  all  the  advantages,  however,  derived  from  the  fertility  of 
the  soil,  and  the  variety  of  its  productions,  the  peasants  cannot, 
without  the  utmost  difficulty,  and  a  constant  exertion,  maintain 


APPENDIX.  189 

their  families ;  and  they  are  always  reduced  to  the  greatest  dis- 
tress, whenever  the  season  is  unfavourable  to  agriculture. 

To  the  causes  of  penury  among  the  lower  classes  above  enu- 
merated, may  be  added  the  natural  indolence  of  the  people, 
and  their  tendency  to  superstition,  which  takes  them  from  their 
labour.  Upon  the  whole,  I  have  not,  in  \he  course  of  my  travels, 
seen  any  peasantry,  except  in  Poland,  so  comfortless  as  the 
inferior  inhabitants  of  this  valley.  They  enjoy  indeed  one  great 
advantage  over  the  Poles,  in  not  being  the  absolute  property  of 
the  landholder,  and  transferable,  like  cattle.  They  are  therefore 
at  liberty  to  live  where  they  chuse,  to  quit  their  country,  and 
seek  a  better  condition  in  other  regions ;  a  relief  to  which  dis- 
tress often  compels  them  to  have  recourse. 

Ibid.  p.  143.  —  The  cottages  of  the  peasants,  which  are  built 
of  stone,  are  large,  but  gloomy,  generally  without  glass  windows : 
I  entered  several,  and  was  everywhere  disgusted  with  an  uni- 
form appearance  of  dirt  and  poverty.  The  peasants  are  mostly 
covered  with  rags,  and  the  children  have  usually  an  unhealthy 
look,  which  arises  from  their  wretched  manner  of  living.  Such 
a  scarcity  of  provisions  has  been  occasioned  by  last  year's 
drought,  that  the  poor  inhabitants  have  been  reduced  to  the 
most  extreme  necessity.  The  price  of  bread  was  unavoidably 
raised  so  high,  that  in  many  parts  the  peasants  could  not  pur- 
chase it ;  and  their  only  food  was  for  some  time  a  kind  of  paste, 
made  by  pounding  the  hulls  and  stones  of  the  grapes  which  had 
been  pressed  for  wine,  and  mixing  it  with  a  little  meal.  Famine, 
added  to  their  oppressed  situation,  reduced  the  inhabitants  to 
the  lowest  condition  of  human  misery,  and  numbers  perished 
from  absolute  want. 

Gilly's  Narrative  and  Researches  among  the  Vaudois,  &c.  p. 
129.  —  The  other  cottages  we  entered  were  of  a  very  inferior 


190  PEASANT  RENTS. 

order,  and  had  but  few  of  those  little  comforts,  with  which  in 
England  we  desire  to  see  the  poorest  supplied,  and  it  was  quite  as- 
tonishing to  compare  the  very  rude  and  insufficient  accommoda- 
tions of  these  people,  with  their  civility  and  information.  In 
their  mode  of  living,  or  I  might  almost  say,  herding  together, 
under  a  roof,  which  is  barely  weather  proof,  they  are  far  behind 
our  own  peasantry,  but  in  mental  advancement  they  are  just  as 
far  beyond  them.  Most  of  them  have  a  few  roods  of  land, 
which  they  can  call  their  own  property,  varying  in  extent,  from 
about  a  quarter  of  an  acre  and  upwards,  and  they  have  the 
means  of  providing  themselves  with  fuel,  from  the  abundance  of 
wood  upon  the  mountains. 

The  tenure,  upon  which  land  is  hired,  requires  that  the  occu- 
pier should  pay  to  the  proprietor  half  the  produce  of  corn  and 
wine  in  kind,  and  half  the  value  of  the  hay.  The  indifferent 
corn-land  yields  about  five  fold,  and  the  best  twelve  fold.  They 
seldom  suffer  the  ground  to  lie  fallow,  and  the  most  general 
course  is,  wheat  for  two  years,  and  maize  the  third.  The  land  is 
well  manured  from  time  to  time,  and  the  corn  is  usually  sown 
in  August  or  September,  and  cut  in  June.  In  the  vale  of  San 
Giovanni,  and  in  a  few  other  productive  spots,  hay  is  cut  three 
times  in  the  year. 

Ibid.  p.  128.  —  On  a  crate  suspended  from  the  ceiling,  we 
counted  fourteen  large  black  loaves,  Bread  is  an  unusual  luxury 
among  them,  but  the  owner  of  this  cottage  was  of  a  condition 
something  above  the  generality. 

VI. 
Note  on  Ryot  Rents. 

Col.  Tod's  services  in  Rajasfhan  were  most  distinguished. 
His  elaborate  work  is  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  literature  of 


APPENDIX.  191 

his  country.  Had  I  found  that  the  facts  collected  by  such  a 
person  really  contradicted  the  opinions  I  have  arrived  at  (in 
common,  however,  with  the  majority  of  those  who  have  con- 
sidered the  subject),  I  should  have  been  most  ready  to  have  re- 
examined  those  opinions,  and  perhaps  to  have  abandoned  them. 
But  the  conclusions  which  Col.  Tod  has  drawn  from  his  facts, 
seem  to  me  to  require  considerable  modification  before  they 
can  be  reconciled  with  the  past  and  present  condition  of  the 
rest  of  India,  or  indeed  of  Rajast'han  itself  as  he  depicts  it. 
The  Colonel  thinks,  that  the  relations  between  the  princes  of 
Rajast'han  and  their  nobles  are  similar  to  those  which  existed 
between  the  feudal  nobility  of  Europe  and  their  sovereigns  ;  and 
that  the  ryots  have  an  interest  in  the  soil,  which  he  calls  a  free- 
hold interest :  and  this  he  magnifies  and  dwells  on,  with  all  the 
partiality  of  a  man,  who  feels  a  good-natured  pleasure  in  exalting 
the  institutions  of  his  favourite  Rajpoots. 

The  question  to  be  discussed  is,  whether  there  is  anything  in 
the  facts  produced  by  Col.  Tod  or  others,  to  contradict  the 
notion  adopted  in  the  text,  that  the  soil  of  India  belongs  to  the 
sovereign  and  to  the  sovereign  alone,  and  that  the  occupiers 
have  never,  practically,  any  other  character  than  that  of  his 
tenantry,  except  in  some  small  districts,  which  form  acknowl- 
edged exceptions  to  a  general  rule.  The  mere  existence  of  a 
feudal  nobility,  so  far  from  being  inconsistent  with  the  proprie- 
tary right  of  the  Sovereign,  strongly  confirms  it.  It  is  the  one 
essential  characteristic  of  a  feudal  system,  that  the  land  should 
be  granted  by  the  sovereign,  and  on  certain  conditions.  In 
Europe  the  right  of  resumption  slid  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
monarchs  by  imperceptible  degrees.  In  Rajast'han  it  has  never 
escaped  them  at  all.  Only  a  century  and  a  half  ago,  so  miser- 
ably unstable  was  the  claim  of  subject  nobles  even  to  the  tem- 
porary possession  of  any  particular  spot,  that  they  were  in  the 
habit  of  changing  their  lands  every  three  years.  "  So  late  as 


192  PEASANT  RENTS. 

the  reign  of  Mana  Singram  (10  generations  ago,)  the  fiefs  of 
Mewar  were  actually  movable,  and  little  more  than  a  century 
and  a  half  has  passed  since  this  practice  ceased.  Thus,  a 
Rahtore  would  shift  with  family,  chattels  and  retainers,  from 
the  north  into  the  wilds  of  Chuppun,  while  the  Suktawut, 
relieved,  would  occupy  the  plains  at  the  foot  of  the  Aravulli,  or 
a  Chondawut  would  exchange  his  abode  on  the  banks  of  the 
Chumbul  with  a  Pramara  or  Chohan  from  the  Table  Mountain, 
the  eastern  boundary  of  Mewar.  "  Such  changes "  (Mr.  Tod 
says  in  a  note)  "  were  triennial,  and  as  I  have  heard  the  Prince 
himself  say,  so  interwoven  with  their  customs  was  this  rule,  that 
it  caused  no  dissatisfaction :  but  of  this  we  may  be  allowed  at 
least  to  doubt.  It  was  a  perfect  check  to  the  imbibing  of  local 
attachment ;  and  the  prohibition  against  erecting  forts  for  refuge 
or  defiance,  prevented  its  growth  if  acquired.  It  produced  the 
object  intended,  obedience  to  the  Prince,  and  unity  against  the 
restless  Mogul."  —  Tod's  Rajasfhan,  p.  164. 

Even  now  their  rights  remain  much  on  the  same  footing.  In 
Europe,  the  necessity  of  admission  by  the  sovereign,  the  fine 
paid  by  the  heir,  and  the  renewal  of  homage  and  fealty,  kept 
alive  the  recollection  at  least,  of  the  past  rights  of  the  sovereign. 
In  Rajast'han,  an  actual  resumption  takes  place  by  the  Rajah  on 
the  death  of  every  chief:  and  is  conducted  in  such  a  manner,  as 
very  impressively  to  exhibit  the  existing  claims  of  the  monarch, 
and  the  entire  (legal)  dependence  of  all  derivative  interests  on 
his  will.  "On  the  demise  of  a  chief,  the  prince  immediately 
sends  a  party,  termed  the  zubti  (sequestrator),  consisting  of  a 
civil  officer  and  a  few  soldiers,  who  take  possession  of  the  state 
(quere,  estate)  in  the  prince's  name.  The  heir  sends  his  prayer 
to  court  to  be  installed  in  the  property,  offering  the  proper 
relief.  This  paid,  the  chief  is  invited  to  repair  to  the  presence, 
when  he  performs  homage,  and  makes  protestations  of  service 
and  fealty;  he  receives  a  fresh  grant,  and  the  inauguration 


APPENDIX.  193 

terminates  by  the  prince  girding  him  with  a  sword,  in  the  old 
forms  of  chivalry.  It  is  an  imposing  ceremony,  performed  in  a 
full  assembly  of  the  court,  and  one  of  the  few  which  has  never 
been  relinquished.  The  fine  paid,  and  the  brand  buckled  to  his 
side,  a  steed,  turban,  plume,  and  dress  of  honour  given  to  the 
chief,  the  investiture  is  complete ;  the  sequestrator  returns  to 
court,  and  the  chief  to  his  estate,  to  receive  the  vows  and  con- 
gratulations of  his  vassals."  —  Tod's  Rajasfhan,  p.  158.  After 
these  extracts,  it  can  hardly  be  necessary  to  state,  that  the  doc- 
trine as  to  the  proprietary  rights  of  the  sovereign  is  not  weakened 
by  the  condition  of  the  noble  Rajpoots.  It  would  be  a  curious 
subject,  were  this  the  place  for  it,  to  trace  the  peculiar  causes 
which  have  led  the  sovereigns  of  Rajast'han,  to  delegate,  in  a 
great  measure,  the  military  defence  of  their  frontiers  to  chieftains 
so  nearly  resembling  our  feudal  barons.  Those  causes  may  be 
partially  discerned  in  the  ties  of  blood  which  connect  the  sover- 
eign and  chiefs  with  their  tribes  —  in  the  mountainous  character 
of  their  fortresses  —  in  their  being  constantly  liable  to  hostile 
incursions  —  and  in  their  almost  perpetual  state  of  defensive  war. 
We  should,  I  think,  after  fairly  examining  the  causes  and  results 
of  the  Rajpoot  system,  find  much  more  reason  to  wonder,  that 
the  rights  of  the  sovereign  to  the  soil  have  not  oftener  generated 
such  a  system,  than  to  conclude  from  its  existence  in  Rajast'han 
that  there  are  no  such  proprietary  rights. 

I  cannot  quit  the  feudal  part  of  the  question,  without  warmly 
recommending  Col.  Tod's  book  to  the  general  reader,  and  to  the 
student  of  history,  and  of  man.  The  system  of  modified  depend- 
ence on  the  chief  for  military  services,  as  established  in  this  part 
of  India,  has  produced  a  resemblance  to  the  state  of  Europe  at  a 
certain  period  of  the  progress  of  feuds,  which  is  most  striking, 
interesting,  and  instructive.  That  resemblance  may  be  traced 
in  the  tenures  and  laws  of  the  Rajpoots  —  in  the  mixed  political 
results  of  these  —  both  good  and  evil  —  and  in  the  moral,  and  we 
o 


194  PEASANT  RENTS. 

may  almost  say  poetical  characteristics  of  the  population  —  in 
the  deep  and  enthusiastic  feelings  which  accompany  their  notions 
of  fealty  —  in  the  emulous  courage,  the  desperate  fidelity  of  the 
nobles  —  and  in  many  lofty  and  romantic  traits  of  manners 
worthy  to  have  sprung  out  of  the  very  bosom  of  chivalry,  and 
extending  their  influence  to  the  dark  beauties  of  the  Zenana,  as 
well  as  to  their  warrior  kindred.  High  born  dames  in  distress, 
still  there,  as  they  once  did  in  Europe,  send  their  tokens  to 
selected  champions,  who  whether  invested  with  sovereign  power, 
or  occupying  a  less  distinguished  station,  are  equally  bound  to 
speed  to  their  aid,  under  the  penalty  of  being  stigmatized  for  ever 
as  cravens  and  dishonoured.  Col.  Tod,  himself,  can  boast  an 
honour  (well  deserved  by  zealous  devotion  and  disinterested 
services)  which  many  a  preux  chevalier  would  have  joyfully 
dared  a  thousand  deaths  to  obtain,  that  of  being  the  chosen 
friend  and  champion  of  more  than  one  princess,  whose  regal, 
and  indeed  celestial,  descents  make  the  longest  genealogies  of 
Europe  look  mean. 

The  next  question  arising  out  of  Col.  Tod's  book  is  this. 
Are  the  ryots  in  Rajast'han  practically,  as  he  conceives  them  to 
be,  freeholders  in  any  sense  in  which  an  English  proprietor  is 
called  the  freeholder  of  the  land  he  owns  ?  I  began  in  the  text 
by  remarking,  that  the  ryot  has  very  generally  a  recognized  right 
to  the  hereditary  occupation  of  his  plot  of  ground,  while  he  pays 
the  rent  demanded  of  him :  and  the  question  is,  whether  that 
right  in  Rajast'han  practically  amounts  to  a  proprietary  right  or 
not.  Now  a  distinction  before  suggested  in  the  text,  seems  to 
afford  the  only  real  criterion  which  can  enable  us  to  determine 
this  question  fairly.  Is  the  ryot  at  rack-rent  ?  has  he,  or  has  he 
not,  a  beneficial  interest  in  the  soil  ?  can  he  obtain  money  for 
that  interest  by  sale  ?  can  he  make  a  landlord's  rent  of  it  ?  To 
give  a  cultivator  an  hereditary  interest  at  a  variable  rack-rent, 
and  then  to  call  his  right  to  till,  a  freehold  right,  would  clearly 


APPENDIX.  195 

be  little  better  than  mockery.  To  subject  such  a  person  to  the 
payment  of  more  than  a  rack-rent,  to  leave  him  no  adequate 
remuneration  for  his  personal  toil,  and  still  to  call  him  a  free- 
hold proprietor,  would  be  something  more  bitter  than  mere 
mockery.  To  establish  by  law,  and  enforce  cruelly  in  practice, 
fines  and  punishments  to  avenge  his  running  away  from  his 
freehold,  and  refusing  to  cultivate  it  for  the  benefit  of  his  hard 
task  master,  would  be  to  convert  him  into  a  predial  slave :  and 
this,  although  a  very  natural  consequence  of  the  mode  of  estab- 
lishing such  freehold  rights  would  make  the  names  of  proprietor 
and  owner  almost  ridiculous. 

The  use  of  the  criterion  here  pointed  out,  is  made  very  pal- 
pable by  Sir  T.  Munro  in  a  "  Minute  on  the  State  of  the  Country 
and  on  the  Condition  of  the  People,"  dated  the  3ist  of  Decem- 
ber, 1824.  "Had  the  public  assessment,  as  pretended,  ever 
been,  as  in  the  books  of  their  sages,  only  a  sixth  or  a  fifth,  or 
even  only  a  fourth  of  the  gross  produce,  the  payment  of  a  fixed 
share  in  kind,  and  all  the  expensive  machinery  requisite  for  its 
supervision,  never  could  have  been  wanted.  The  simple  plan 
of  a  money  assessment  might  have  been  at  once  resorted  to,  in 
the  full  confidence  that  the  revenue  would  every  year,  in  good 
or  bad  seasons,  be  easily  and  punctually  paid.  No  person  who 
knows  anything  of  India  revenue  can  believe  that  the  Rayet, 
if  his  fixed  assessment  were  only  a  fifth  or  a  fourth  of  the  gross 
produce,  would  not  every  year,  whether  the  season  were  good 
or  bad,  pay  it  without  difficulty ;  and  not  only  do  this,  but  pros- 
per under  it  beyond  what  he  has  ever  done  at  any  former 
period.  Had  such  a  moderate  assessment  ever  been  established, 
it  would  undoubtedly  have  been  paid  in  money,  because  there 
would  have  been  no  reason  for  continuing  the  expensive  process 
of  making  collections  in  kind.  It  was  because  the  assessment 
was  not  moderate,  that  assessments  in  kind  were  introduced  or 
continued :  for  a  money  rent  equivalent  to  the  amount  could  not 


196  PEASANT  RENTS. 

have  been  realized  one  year  with  another.  The  Hindoo  Govern- 
ments  seem  to  have  often  wished  that  land  should  be  both  an 
hereditary  and  a  saleable  property ;  but  they  could  not  bring 
themselves  to  adopt  the  only  practicable  mode  of  effecting  it,  a 
low  assessment.  —  Life  of  Munro,  Vol.  in.  p.  331. 

Ibid.  p.  336.  —  "Rayets  sometimes  have  a  landlord's  rent;  for 
it  is  evident  that  whenever  they  so  far  improve  their  land  as  to 
derive  from  it  more  than  the  ordinary  profit  of  stock,  the  excess 
is  landlord's  rent ;  but  they  are  never  sure  of  long  enjoying  this 
advantage,  as  they  are  constantly  liable  to  be  deprived  of  it  by 
injudicious  over  assessment.  While  this  state  of  insecurity 
exists,  no  body  of  substantial  landholders  can  ever  arise;  nor 
can  the  country  improve,  or  the  revenue  rest  on  any  solid 
foundation.  In  order  to  make  the  land  generally  saleable,  to 
encourage  the  Rayets  to  improve  it,  and  to  regard  it  as  a  per- 
manent hereditary  property,  the  assessment  must  be  fixed,  and 
more  moderate  in  general  than  it  now  is;  and  above  all,  so 
clearly  defined  as  not  to  be  liable  to  increase  from  ignorance  or 
caprice." 

Ibid.  p.  339.  —  "The  land  of  the  Baramahl  will  probably  in 
time  all  become  saleable,  even  under  its  present  assessment; 
but  private  landed  property  is  of  slow  growth  in  countries  where 
it  has  not  previously  existed,  and  where  the  Government  rev- 
enue is  nearly  half  the  produce ;  and  we  must  not  expect  that 
it  can  be  hastened  by  regulations  or  forms  of  settlement,  or  by 
any  other  way  than  by  adhering  steadily  to  a  limited  assess- 
ment, and  lowering  it  wherever,  after  full  experience,  it  may 
still  in  particular  places  be  found  too  high.  By  pursuing  this 
course,  or,  in  other  words,  by  following  what  is  now  called  the 
Rayetwar  system,  we  shall  see  no  sudden  change  or  improve- 
ment. The  progress  of  landed  property  will  be  slow,  but  we  may 
look  with  confidence  to  its  ultimate  and  general  establishment." 


APPENDIX.  197 

Ibid.  p.  344.  —  "  If  we  wish  to  make  the  lands  of  the  Rayets 
yield  them  a  landlord's  rent,  we  have  only  to  lower  and  fix  the 
assessment,  all  then  in  time  have  the  great  body  of  the  Rayets 
possessing  landed  properties,  yielding  a  landlord's  rent,  but  small 
in  extent." 

Ibid.  p.  352.  —  "  It  may  be  said  that  Government  having  set  a 
limit  upon  its  demand  upon  the  Zemindar,  he  will  also  set  a  limit 
to  his  demand  upon  the  Rayet,  and  leave  him  the  full  produce  of 
every  improvement,  and  thus  enable  him  to  render  his  land  a 
valuable  property.  But  we  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  this 
will  be  the  case,  either  from  the  practice  of  the  new  Zemindars 
during  the  twenty  years  they  have  existed,  or  from  that  of  the 
old  Zemindars  during  a  succession  of  generations.  In  old  Zem- 
indarries,  whether  held  by  the  Rajahs  of  the  Circars,  or  the  Pol- 
igars  of  the  more  southern  provinces,  which  have  from  a  distant 
period  been  held  at  a  low  and  fixed  peshcush,  no  indulgence  has 
been  shown  to  the  Rayets,  no  bound  has  been  set  to  the  demand 
upon  them.  The  demand  has  risen  with  improvement,  accord- 
ing to  the  custom  of  the  country,  and  the  land  of  the  Rayet  has 
no  saleable  value ;  we  ought  not,  therefore,  to  be  surprised  that 
in  the  new  Zemindarries,  whose  assessment  is  so  much  higher, 
the  result  has  been  equally  unfavourable  to  the  Rayets.  The 
new  Zemindarries  will,  by  division  among  heirs  and  failures  in 
their  payments,  break  up  into  portions  of  one  or  two  villages ; 
but  this  will  not  better  the  condition  of  the  Rayet.  It  will  not 
fix  the  rent  of  the  land,  nor  render  it  a  valuable  property ;  it  will 
merely  convert  one  large  Zemindarry  into  several  small  Zemindar- 
ries or  Mootahs,  and  Mootahs  of  a  kind  of  much  more  injurious 
than  those  of  the  Baramahl  to  the  Rayets  ;  because,  in  the  Bara- 
mahl,  the  assessment  of  the  Rayets1  land  had  previously  been 
fixed  by  survey,  while  in  the  new  Zemindarries  of  the  Circars  it 
had  been  left  undefined.  The  little  will  in  time  share  the  fate 


198  PEASANT  RENTS. 

of  the  great  Zemin darries ;  they  will  be  divided,  and  fail,  and 
finally  revert  to  Government;  and  the  Rayets,  after  this  long 
and  circuitous  course,  will  again  become  what  they  originally 
were,  the  immediate  tenants  of  Government ;  and  Government 
will  then  have  it  in  its  power  to  survey  their  lands,  to  lower  and 
fix  the  assessment  upon  them,  and  to  lay  the  foundation  of  landed 
property  in  the  lands  of  the  Rayets,  where  alone,  in  order  to  be 
successful,  it  must  be  laid." 

Yet  with  all  these  views  of  the  difficulty  of  establishing  private 
property  in  land,  Sir  Thomas  Munro  declares  the  ryot  to  be  the 
true  proprietor,  possessing  all  that  is  not  claimed  by  the  sovereign  as 
revenue.  This,  he  says,  while  rejecting  the  proprietary  claims  of 
the  Zemindars  ;  which  he  thinks  unduly  magnified.  —  "  But  the 
"  Rayet  is  the  real  proprietor,  for  whatever  land  does  not  belong 
"  to  the  sovereign  belongs  to  him.  The  demand  for  public 
"  revenue,  according  as  it  is  high  or  low  in  different  places,  and, 
"  at  different  times,  affects  his  share ;  but  whether  it  leaves  him 
"  only  the  bare  profit  of  his  stock,  or  a  small  surplus  beyond  it 
"  as  landlord's  rent,  he  is  still  the  true  proprietor,  and  possesses 
"all  that  is  not  claimed  by  the  sovereign  as  revenue."  —  Vol.  in. 
p.  340.  I  must  refer  the  reader  to  the  Minute  itself  for  Sir  T. 
Munro's  account  of  the  beneficial  proprietary  rights  actually  sub- 
sisting in  Canara,  and  of  certain  similar  but  subordinate  and 
imperfect  rights  existing  elsewhere.  To  comprehend  the  real 
condition  of  southern  India,  it  would  be  necessary  to  understand 
these  well.  The  plan  of  such  a  work  as  this  will  not  allow  me  to 
dilate  on  them. 

Taking,  then,  the  fact  here  established  by  Sir  T.  Munro,  that 
in  spite  of  the  hereditary  claims  of  the  ryot,  it  is  extremely  diffi- 
cult to  discern,  or  even  establish  a  real  beneficial  landlord's 
interest  among  the  cultivators,  while  the  assessment  is  high  and 
variable,  let  us  apply  this  to  Rajast'han,  and  to  the  statements  of 
Col.  Tod  as  to  the  Ryot  freeholders  of  Mewar.  Let  us  examine, 


APPENDIX.  199 

first,  the  relation  between  the  subordinate  chiefs  and  their  imme- 
diate vassals.  The  chiefs,  it  will  be  remembered,  represent  the 
sovereign  on  their  estates.  The  vassals  of  Deogurh  sent  to  the 
British  resident  a  long  complaint  of  their  chief,  to  which  Col. 
Tod  often  refers.  The  following  are  some  articles.  "To  each 
"Rajpoot's  house  a  churras,  or  hide  of  land  was  attached,  this 
"•  he  has  resumed.".  "  Ten  or  twelve  villages  established  by  his 
"Puttaets  he  has  resumed,  and  left  their  families  to  starve." 
While  complaining  of  being  driven  from  their  land,  it  will  be 
observed  that  the  proceeding  is  called  by  themselves  a  resump- 
tion. "  When  Deogurh  was  established,  at  the  same  time  were 
"  our  allotment :  as  his  patrimony,  so  our  patrimony  ;  our  rights 
"  and  privileges  in  his  family  are  the  same  as  his  in  the  family  of 
"the  presence  (the  sovereign)." —  Tod,  p.  199. 

Now  if  these  last  passages  express,  as  I  suspect  they  do,  the 
extent  and  ground  of  their  claims ;  we  know  how  to  interpret 
them.  If  their  interest  in  the  soil  was  similar  to  that  of  the  chief 
in  his  estate,  it  was  a  grant  from  the  sovereign  on  certain  condi- 
tions ;  resumable  at  pleasure,  although  practically  rarely  resumed. 

Let  us  next  examine  the  more  direct  relation  between  the  sov- 
ereign and  the  cultivators  on  his  domain.  The  following  decree 
is  headed  Privileges  and  Immunities  granted  to  the  Printers  of 
Calico  and  Inhabitants  of  the  Town  of  great  Akola  in  Mewar. 
"  Maharana  Bheem  Sing  commanding.  Whereas  the  village  has 
"  been  abandoned,  from  the  assignments  levied  by  the  garrison  of 
"  Mandelgurh,  and  it  being  demanded  of  its  population,  how  it 
"  could  again  be  rendered  prosperous  ;  they  unanimously  replied, 
"  *  not  to  exact  beyond  the  dues  and  contributions  established  of 
" '  yore  ;  to  erect  the  pillar  promising  never  to  exact  above  half  the 
" '  produce  of  the  crops,  or  to  molest  the  persons  of  those  who  thus 
"'paid  their  dues.'"— Tod,  p.  206. 

I  leave  the  reader  to  determine  if  this  is  the  language  of  a 


200  PEASANT  RENTS. 

ruler  dealing  with  a  body  of  acknowledged  freeholders,  or  of  an 
Indian  owner  of  ryot  land,  promising  to  moderate  his  demands 
for  the  future. 

But  the  most  curious  specimen  of  the  actual  condition  of  the 
ryots  of  Rajast'han,  is  to  be  found  in  the  account  of  the  manage- 
ment of  Zalim  Singh,  the  Regent  of  Kotah.  This  chief  was  the 
real  sovereign  of  Kotah  ;  though  administering  its  affairs  in  the 
name  of  a  rajah  fainean.  His  administration  was  considered 
singularly  prudent  and  vigorous ;  he  is  called  by  Col.  Tod,  the 
Nestor  of  India,  and  is  spoken  of  by  Sir  John  Malcolm  much  in 
the  same  spirit.  The  following  is  an  extract  from  Sir  John's 
Central  India.  "One  of  the  principal  of  the  Rajpoot  rulers 
"of  central  India,  Zalim  Singh,  has  a  revenue  system,  which,  like 
"  that  of  his  government,  is  entirely  suited  to  his  personal  char- 
"  acter.  He  manages  a  kingdom  like  a  farm,  he  is  the  banker 
"  who  makes  the  advances  to  the  cultivators,  as  well  as  the  ruler 
"  to  whom  they  pay  revenue :  and  his  terms  of  interest  are  as 
"  high,  as  those  of  the  most  sordid  money  brokers.  This  places 
"  the  cultivators  much  in  his  power,  and  to  increase  this  depend- 
"  ence  he  has  belonging  to  himself  several  thousand  ploughs,  with 
"  hired  labourers,  who  are  not  only  employed  in  recovering  waste 
"  lands,  but  sent  on  the  instant  to  till  those  fields  which  the  peas- 
"  antry  object  to  cultivate,  from  deeming  the  rent  too  high."  — 
Malcolm's  Cent.  India,  Vol.  u.  p.  62. 

Truly  after  reading  these  extracts,  it  is  difficult  to  believe,  that 
the  cultivators  of  Rajast'han  are  in  a  much  more  elevated  condi- 
tion than  those  of  southern  India;  among  whom  Sir  Thomas 
Munro  perceived,  that  it  would  be  a  very  slow  and  difficult 
process  to  establish  landed  property  and  beneficial  interests; 
although  he  recognized  in  tjiem  the  proprietors  of  all  not  claimed 
by  the  sovereign  as  revenue. 

But  there  is  a  position  of  Col.  Tod's  which  yet  remains  to  be 
noticed.  —  He  cites  the  institutes  of  Menu,  to  prove  that  land 


APPENDIX.  201 

throughout  India,  belongs  to  him  who  first  clears  the  wood  and 
tills  it ;  and  this  quotation  derives  rather  more  importance  than 
would  otherwise  belong  to  it,  from  the  fact  that  the  passage 
relating  to  the  sovereign's  right  to  the  soil,  which  is  quoted  in 
the  text  from  Colebrooke's  translation  of  the  digest  of  Hindoo 
law,  has  been  suspected  of  having  been  forged  by  the  natives 
employed  to  compile  that  digest,  in  order  to  flatter  some  sup- 
posed prepossessions  of  those  who  employed  them.  I,  however, 
still  believe,  that  the  law  as  translated  by  Mr.  Colebrooke, 
whether  genuine  or  not,  very  accurately  represents  the  practical 
management  of  the  soil  of  India  for  many  ages. 

He  (says  Col.  Tod,  speaking  of  the  ryot)  has  nature  and 
Menu  in  support  of  his  claim,  and  can  quote  the  text,  alike  com- 
pulsory on  prince  and  peasant.  "Cultivated  land  is  the  prop- 
"  erty  of  him  who  cut  away  the  wood,  or  who  cleared  and  tilled 
"  #."  The  following  is  the  text  as  it  stands  in  Haughton's  edition 
of  Menu : 

On  Judicature  and  Law,  Private  and  Criminal,  and  on  the 
Commercial  and  servile  Classes,  —  Haughton,  p.  293. 

44.  Sages  who  know  former  times,  consider  this  earth 
(Prit'hivi)  as  the  wife  of  King  Prithu ;  and  thus  they  pronounce 
cultivated  land  to  be  the  property  of  him,  who  cut  away  the 
wood,  or  who  cleared  and  tilled  it ;  and  the  antelope,  of  the  first 
hunter  who  mortally  wounded  it. 

Now  had  this  passage  been  found  in  a  part  of  the  code  relat- 
ing to  landed  property,  it  would  at  least  have  carried  with  it  the 
authority  of  Menu.  In  that  case  I  should  have  had  to  recall  to 
the  reader's  recollection  the  small  value  which  Sir  T.  Munro's 
experience  led  him  to  attach  to  the  sayings  of  the  ancient  Indian 
sages,  when  questions  arise  as  to  the  actual  law  or  past  practice 
of  India  [see  back,  p.  (37)].  But,  in  truth,  the  passage  is  found 
in  a  very  different  part  of  the  code ;  a  slight  further  examination 
will  convince  the  reader,  that  this  mythological  sage  was  speak- 


202  PEASANT  RENTS. 

ing  of  far  other  matters :  and  that  Col.  Tod  has  fallen  into  a 
mistake,  at  which  we  must  be  allowed  to  smile. 

Menu  is  in  fact  deciding  to  whom  the  children  shall  belong, 
born  of  an  adulterous  intercourse  between  a  married  woman  and 
her  paramour.  "  Learn  now  that  excellent  law  universally  salu- 
"  tary,  which  was  declared,  concerning  issue,  by  great  and  good 
"  sages  formerly  born,"  and  illustrating  this  in  his  own  allegorical 
fashion,  he  compares  the  earth  to  the  lady ;  and  declares,  that  he 
who  received  her  virgin  charms  should  be  the  owner  of  all  the 
progeny  she  might  produce,  under  any  circumstances,  however 
strong,  of  detected  or  permitted  faithlessness ;  and  that  as  culti- 
vated ground  belonged  to  him  who  first  tilled  it,  and  the  ante- 
lope to  the  first  hunter  who  mortally  wounded  it,  so  "  men  who 
"  have  no  marital  property  in  women,  but  sow  in  the  fields  owned 
"  by  others,  may  raise  up  fruit  to  the  husband,  but  the  procreator 
"can  have  no  advantage  from  it." 

This  subject  Menu  pursues  from  31  p.  291  to  55  p.  295  of 
Haughton,  and  follows  up  his  illustration  by  putting  a  variety  of 
cases  which  I  certainly  shall  not  quote,  but  which  once  read,  will 
effectually  (I  should  think)  prevent  any  person's  again  referring 
to  this  passage,  as  a  grave  authority  for  the  laws  relating  to 
landed  property  in  India. 

When  deliberately  speaking  of  the  rights  of  the  sovereign,  the 
code  uses  a  language  in  complete  unison  with  the  actual  usages 
of  the  country.  "If  land  be  injured  by  the  fault  of  the  farmer 
"  himself,  as  if  he  fails  to  sow  it  in  due  time,  he  shall  be  fined  ten 
"  times  as  much  as  the  king's  share  of  the  crop  that  might  other- 
"  wise  have  been  raised  :  but  only  five  times  as  much  if  it  was  the 
"fault  of  his  servants  without  his  knowledge." —  On  Judicature 
and  Law,  243,  p.  259  of  Haughton's  Translation. 

The  same  imperfect  right,  however,  to  hereditary  occupation, 
while  the  demands  of  the  sovereign  are  satisfied,  which  is  every- 
where conceded  to  the  ryots,  is  also  still  conceded  in  some  parts 


APPENDIX.  203 

of  India  (not  in  all)  to  the  first  reclaimer  of  waste  or  deserted 
ground. 

Extracts  from  a  firmaun  of  the  Emperor  Aurenzebe,  A.D.  1668, 
published  by  Mr.  Patton  in  his  Principles  of  Asiatic  Monarchies. 
The  firmaun  consists  of  instructions  to  the  government  col- 
lectors. 

p.  343.  —  "  In  a  place  where  neither  asher  nor  kheraj  (mowez- 
zeff)  are  yet  settled  upon  agriculture,  they  shall  act  as  directed 
in  the  law.  In  case  of  kheraj  (mowezzeff),  they  shall  settle  for 
such  a  rate,  that  the  ryots  may  not  be  ruined  by  the  lands ;  and 
they  shall  not,  on  any  account,  exact  beyond  (the  value  of)  half 
of  the  produce,  notwithstanding  any  (particular)  ability  to  pay 
more.  In  a  place  where  (one  or  the  other)  is  fixed,  they  shall 
take  what  has  been  agreed  for,  provided  that  in  kheraj  (mowez- 
zeff)  it  does  not  exceed  the  half  (of  the  produce  in  money),  that 
the  ryots  may  not  be  ruined :  but  if  (what  is  settled  appear  to 
be  too  much)  they  shall  reduce  the  former  kheraj  to  what  shall 
be  found  proportionable  to  their  ability  ;  however,  if  the  capacity 
exceeds  the  settlement,  they  shall  not  take  more." 

p.  340.  —  "They  must  shew  the  ryots  every  kind  of  favour 
and  indulgence  ;  inquire  into  their  circumstances  ;  and  endeav- 
our, by  wholesome  regulations  and  wise  administrations,  to  engage 
them,  with  hearty  good  will,  to  labour  towards  the  increase  of 
agriculture ;  so  that  no  lands  may  be  neglected  that  are  capable 
of  cultivation. 

"  From  the  commencement  of  the  year  they  shall,  as  far  as  they 
are  able,  acquire  information  of  the  circumstances  of  every  hus- 
bandman, whether  they  are  employed  in  cultivation,  or  have 
neglected  it :  then,  those  who  have  the  ability,  they  shall  excite 
and  encourage  to  cultivate  their  lands  ;  and  if  they  require  indul- 
gence in  any  particular  instances,  let  it  be  granted  them  ;  but  if, 
upon  examination,  it  shall  be  found,  that  some  who  have  the 
ability,  and  are  assisted  with  water,  nevertheless  have  neglected 


204  PEASANT  RENTS. 

to  cultivate  their  lands,  they  shall  admonish,  and  threaten,  and 
use  force  and  stripes.'1'1 

Yet  in  this  and  in  another  firmaun,  also  published  by  Mr. 
Patton,  Aurenzebe  speaks  very  tenderly  of  the  rights  of  the 
cultivators  as  proprietors,  and  is  clearly  anxious  to  substitute 
a  milder  mode  of  management  for  the  one  actually  in  use. 

The  case  was  much  worse  with  the  ryots  when  the  Mogul 
government  was  broken  up. 

Indian  Recreations  by  the  Rev.  W.  Tennant,  Vol.  in.  pp.  188- 
90.  —  "This  aspect  of  the  native  governments  merits  the 
greater  notice,  because  it  forms  not  an  accidental  or  temporary 
feature  in  their  character,  but  a  permanent  state  of  society.  It 
is  a  maxim  among  the  native  politicians,  to  regard  their  <  State 
as  continually  at  war.'  Hence  their  military  chiefs  are  not  per- 
mitted for  a  moment  to  indulge  the  habits  of  civil  life ;  nor  do 
they  experience  the  shelter  of  a  house  for  many  years  succes- 
sively. Their  camps  are  not  broken  up;  nor,  except  during 
a  march,  are  their  tents  ever  struck.  The  intervals  of  foreign 
hostility  are  occupied  in  the  collection  of  revenue ;  a  measure, 
which  in  India  is  generally  executed  by  a  military  force,  and  is 
more  fertile  in  extensive  bloodshed  and  barbarity,  as  well  as  in 
the  varied  scenes  of  distress,  than  an  actual  campaign  against  an 
avowed  enemy. 

"  The  refractory  Zemindars  (as  they  are  denominated),  upon 
whom  the  troops  are  let  loose,  betake  themselves,  on  their 
approach,  to  a  neighbouring  mud  fort ;  one  of  which  is  erected 
for  protection,  in  the  vicinity  of  almost  every  village.  There 
the  inhabitants  endeavour  to  secure  themselves,  their  cattle,  and 
effects,  till  they  are  compelled  by  force  or  famine  to  submit. 
The  garrison  is  then  razed  to  the  foundation,  and  the  village 
burnt,  to  expiate  a  delinquency,  too  frequently  occasioned  solely 
>  by  the  iniquitous  exactions  of  government  itself. 

"In    these    military   executions,  some   of  the  peasantry  are 


APPENDIX.  205 

destroyed ;  some  fall  victims  to  famine  thus  artificially  created, 
and  not  a  few  are  sold,  with  their  wives  and  children,  to  defray 
their  arrears  to  the  treasury,  or  to  discharge  the  aggravated 
burdens  imposed  by  the  landholders.  Such  as  survive,  betake 
themselves  to  the  woods,  till  the  departure  of  their  oppressors 
encourages  them  to  revisit  their  smoking  habitations,  and  to 
repair  their  ruins.  Thus  harassed  by  the  injustice  and  barbarity 
of  their  rulers,  the  peasantry  lose  all  sense  of  right  and  wrong ; 
from  want,  they  are  forced  to  become  robbers  in  their  turn,  and 
to  provoke,  by  their  fraud  or  violence,  a  repetition  of  the  same 
enormities  against  the  next  annual  visitation  of  the  army." 

The  fixing  the  poor  ryot  to  the  hereditary  task  of  cultivation, 
was  evidently,  under  even  the  best  of  such  governments,  a  great 
gain  to  the  sovereign,  and  a  miserable  privilege  to  him. 

Buchanan's  Edit.  Smith's  Wealth  of  Nations,  Vol.  iv.  App. 
p.  86.  —  "  Mr.  Place,  to  whom  the  management  of  the  jaghire,  that 
surrounds  the  presidency  of  Madras,  was  committed,  when 
describing  a  certain  species 'of  tenant,  observes,  that  by  grant- 
ing them  the  lands  '  to  them  and  their  heirs  for  ever,  as  long  as 
they  continued  in  obedience  to  the  Circar,  and  paid  all  just 
dues,  he  was  enabled  to  convert  the  most  stubborn  soil  and 
thickest  jingle  into  fertile  villages.' " 

The  same  sentiments  were  expressed  by  Colonel  Munro,  who 
had  the  charge  of  several  districts.  He  saw  clearly,  that  the 
high  assessment  on  the  land  checked  agriculture  and  population : 
and  on  this  account,  he  strongly  recommended  to  government  a 
remission  of  the  tribute.  His  views  were  admitted  to  be  just ; 
but  the  public  necessities  were  pleaded  as  an  apology  for  a  tax, 
the  effect  of  which  it  appears  is  to  keep  back  the  cultivation  of 
the  country.  —  "It  is  the  high  assessment  on  the  land,"  the 
members  of  the  board  of  revenue  observe,  "  which  Colonel  Munro 
"justly  considers  the  chief  check  to  population.  Were  it  not  for 


206  PEASANT  RENTS. 

"  the  pressure  of  this  heavy  rent,  population,  he  thinks,  ought  to 
"  increase  even  faster  than  in  America ;  because  the  climate  is 
"  more  favourable,  and  there  are  vast  tracts  of  good  land  unoccu- 
"  pied,  which  may  be  ploughed  at  once,  without  the  labour  or 
"  expence  of  clearing  away  forests,  as  there  is  above  three  mil- 
lions of  acres  of  this  kind  in  the  ceded  districts.  He  is  of 
"  opinion  that  a  great  increase  of  population,  and  consequently 
"  of  land  revenue,  might  be  expected  in  the  course  of  twenty-five 
"years,  from  the  operation  of  the  remission.  But  a  remission  to 
"  a  few  zemindars,  he  apprehends,  would  not  remedy  the  evil, 
"  nor  remove  the  weight  which  at  present  depresses  population. 

"  Under  the  system  proposed,  Colonel  Munro  conceives,  that 
"  cultivation  and  population  would  increase  so  much,  that,  in  the 
"  course  of  twenty-five  years,  lands  formerly  cultivated,  amount- 
"  ing  to  star  pagodas  5,55,962,  would  be  relieved  and  occupied, 
"  together  with  a  considerable  portion  of  waste,  never  before  cul- 
"tivated.  The  extension  of  cultivation,  however,  would  not 
"make  the  farms  larger,  and  thereby  facilitate  collection.  The 
"  enlargement  of  farms  or  estates  is  at  present  prevented  by  the 
"want  of  property;  hereafter  it  would  be  prevented  by  its 
"  division. 

"  This  is  the  outline  of  Colonel  Munro's  plan,  which  is  not  less 
"  applicable  to  all  the  districts  as  yet  unsettled,  than  to  the  ceded 
"districts;  and,  if  the  exigencies  of  government  allowed  of  such 
"  a  sacrifice  as  a  remission  of  the  present  standard  rents,  to  the 
"  extent  of  25  per  cent.,  or  even  of  1 5  per  cent.,  we  should  consider 
"  the  measure  highly  advisable,  and  calculated  to  produce  great 
"ulterior  advantages.  Indeed,  it  would  be  absurd  to  dispute, 
"  that  the  less  we  take  from  the  cultivator  of  the  produce  of  his 
"  labour,  the  more  flourishing  will  be  his  condition. 

"  But,  if  the  exigencies  of  government  do  not  permit  them  to 
"  make  so  great  a  sacrifice ;  if  they  cannot  at  once  confer  the 
"  boon  of  private  property,  they  must  be  content  to  establish  a 


APPENDIX.  207 

"  private  interest  in  the  soil,  as  effectually  as  they  can  under  the 
"  farming  system.  If  they  cannot  afford  to  give  up  a  share  of 
"the  landlord's  rent,  they  must  be  indulgent  landlords."  See 
Report  of  Select  Committee,  Appendix. 

For  examples  of  the  rate  at  which  population  and  produce 
have  increased  under  mild  government,  I  must  refer  the  reader 
to  accounts  of  Col.  Read's  administration  of  the  Mysore,  Sir 
Thomas  Munro's  of  the  ceded  districts,  and  to  Sir  John  Malcolm's 
picture  of  the  rapid  revival  of  central  India,  after  the  destruction 
of  the  Mahratta  sway.  I  find  that  extracts  would  swell  this 
Appendix  too  much. 


UNIVERSITY  OP  .CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY, 
BERKELEY 


is  made  before 


expiration  of  loan  period. 


OCT    61970  14 


364859 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


